INDIVIDUALS in work will feel a little better off at the end of this month, as they receive their first pay cheques following the increase in the Personal Allowance to £10,000 at the start of the tax year. This was a key commitment in the Coalition Agreement, which has been delivered a year earlier than previously planned and will benefit 26 million taxpayers, including around 43,000 people in my Reading West constituency. Basic Rate taxpayers will now be better off to the tune of £705 a year and three million people no longer have to pay any income tax at all.

Last week also saw the introduction of a new Employment Allowance, which will cut employer National Insurance Contributions by up to £2,000. This change will allow any business or charity to hire one extra person on £22,400 a year, or four people working full time on the minimum wage, without paying any National Insurance.

In 2010, Labour proposed to increase National Insurance Contributions. This would have been a tax that would have stifled employers from creating jobs by making it more expensive to employ someone. By contrast, Conservatives in government have cut this tax for more than a million small businesses.

Under Labour’s plans, fuel duty would also be going up this week, hitting people in their wallets. Because of action taken by the Conservatives, there was no rise. We have frozen fuel duty for the remainder of this Parliament, meaning fuel will be 20p per litre cheaper than under Labour’s plans. This has meant the longest duty freeze in over 20 years, saving the average motorist £11 every time they fill up their tank.

In addition to this, on April 1, corporation tax was cut again to 21% and taxes on business investment were virtually abolished for most businesses, after the annual investment allowance was doubled to £500,000.

These tax changes come in the same week that the Finance Bill was debated by MPs during its committee stage in the House of Commons. This Bill will enact into law many of the announcements made in the Chancellor’s 2014 Budget, including a further increase in the Personal Allowance to £10,500 from next April and the introduction of Tax-Free Childcare from autumn 2015.

All in all, a good week for those of us that believe in lower taxes!