Money Matters

The three main parties have all published their manifestos this week, but what do they really mean and how will the plans affect your finances?

While it’s hard to take the manifestos too seriously as political parties often make vote seeking pledges and then neglect to implement them later if elected, there’s alot of specific detail so it’s worth taking the time to understand the potential implications of your vote.

Consumer website www.candidmoney.com has pulled together a handy guide to the pledges, so here are the highlights:

Income tax: While Labour will not raise tax rates during the next parliament, the Liberal Democrats have pledged to increase personal allowances to £10,000.

National Insurance: Labour plans a 1 per cent increase in April 2010 but Conservatives and Liberal Democrats intend to reverse this 1 per cent rise.

Inheritance tax: Labour will freeze the nil rate band until 2014/15 but the Tories would raise the nil rate band to £1m.

Stamp duty: Both Labour and the Conservatives propose no stamp duty for first time buyers on properties up to £250,000, but while the Tories say this is forever, Labour has set a two year time limit on it.

Property tax: The Liberal Democrats are pushing this one, proposing an annual ‘mansion’ tax of 1 per cent on properties worth £2m plus.

Personal pensions: The Conservatives and the Lib Dems, both propose scrapping effective compulsory annuity purchases at 75.

Child Trust Funds: Labour says it will protect these and fund an extra £100 for disabled children, the Conservatives suggest scrapping government contributions to these for all but the poorest families and the Lib Dems say they would scrap contributions altogether.

Visit our indepth election page to keep up to date with what’s happening.

It’s official. The UK will go to the polls on Thursday 6 May 2010.

But while we know that the UK’s budget deficit will be less than expected this year, £167bn is still a pretty big hole and one which will take time to fill. While politicians have been as yet non-committal about where the necessary spending cuts and tax rises will occur, all three major parties have outlined proposals for taxing public enemy number one: the banks.

But what else do the parties have lined up in terms of tax measures?

Labour

* Isa limits will increase annually with inflation

* Make it easier for those over 60 to receive Working Tax Credit.

*Additional annual payments from the Government into the Child Trust Funds of disabled and severely disabled children of £100 or £200 repectively.

Conservatives:

*Stop tax credits to families with incomes over £50,000

*Cut spending on CTFs for all but the poorest and families with disabled children

*Raise the IHT threshold to £1m

*Plans to create an independent Office of Tax Simplification

*Plan for marriage and civil partnerships to be recognised in the tax system in the next parliament

Liberal Democrats:

*Raise the threshold at which people start paying income tax from current levels to £10,000.

*Rebalance the tax systme cutting taxes for people on low and middle incomes

*Align CGT to income tax rates

*Introduce a small levy on the value of properties overa  threshold of £2m.

*Replace air passenger duty with a perplane tax providing an incentive for airlines to fill seats.

*Focus HMRC on tax evasion.

 For indepth coverage of what the country’s main political parties have to say about specific finance-related issues read ft.com’s Personal Finance pages, or visit our indepth page on the Election.