David Cameron must have been pretty pleased with himself as he sat down yesterday after giving his closing address to the 2014 Conservative Party Conference.
As the final conference before next year’s general election, the speech is generally seen as the most important of the political season. Because of this Cameron predictably handed out a number of treats to the electorate in the form of tax cuts and a continued promise to ring fence NHS funding.
There were two key planks to his tax cutting giveaway.
Firstly, a pledge to increase the tax free allowance to £12 500 from the current level of £10 500 by 2020.
Secondly, the Prime Minister announced plans to raise the threshold at which the 40% higher rate of income tax kicks in, from the current £41 900, to £50 000. Understandably there were scenes of wild celebration amongst the Tory party faithful after a return to what they see as traditional Conservative values.
However, many expats will be gnashing their teeth in frustration at the sheer unfairness of the announcements.
It is important to understand that plans are still afoot to remove the personal allowance from all non-residents. For those living outside of the UK it is likely that these changes will not apply despite expatriates not being a drain on UK public services.
Once again the Conservative Party are looking to hard working expats to fill the gaping hole in the public finances. The lack of voting rights for many UK expats is seen by many as the reason why the Treasury is so eager to cut the deficit on the backs of those no longer living in Britain.