Blog

During a House of Commons Treasury Committee ‘Budget 2025’ session, MPs heard criticism of wealth taxes, calls for abolition of SDLT and for changes to the government’s inheritance tax proposals.

The Scottish National Party (SNP) rounded off the 2025 party conference season in Aberdeen, where delegates gathered to consider the way forward for the party’s strategy to achieve Scottish Independence. It was a conference that also discussions on Scotland's income tax policy, wealth and windfall taxes.

At a policy-heavy conference Conservative leaders proposed tax breaks for young people, home buyers and high street businesses, saying they would fund them through cuts to the welfare budget and civil service.

Conservative members and other conference attendees joined an expert panel in Manchester to discuss the taxation of wealth, with a former Conservative Treasury minister warning that changes to inheritance tax will hit the rural economy.

At their conference in Liverpool, Labour leaders signalled that tax rises are likely in the Budget, but not where they would come, promising only that they would not breach their manifesto pledges. MPs and others offered some suggestions.

In this guest blog, Thomas Pope of the Institute for Government (IfG) explores approaches the Chancellor should take to implement tax reform over the remainder of the Parliament.

Labour conference delegates joined an expert panel in Liverpool for a discussion that ranged from the new non-dom taxation regime to whether a wealth tax would work in the UK.

In Bournemouth the Liberal Democrats unveiled plans for a windfall tax on banks to finance lower energy bills, while offering tax cuts for the hospitality sector and opposition to the government’s inheritance tax changes.

In this guest blog, Dr Sara Closs-Davies from the University of Manchester discusses how tax policymaking could influence trust in and compliance with the tax system, focusing on the Welsh approach.

The current tax system hinders small business, with frequent changes, administrative burdens and growing levels of fraud, tax experts have warned MPs.