Raising the rate of national insurance contributions (NICs) by 1.25 percentage points across the board is an unnecessary way to fund health and social care spending (Boris Johnson ‘fully committed’ to national insurance rise, 28 January). Instead, billions of pounds could be raised by levelling up the current rate of 2% paid on employee annual earnings above £50,000 to 12%, ie the rate currently paid on earnings between around £9,500 and £50,000.
Employee NICs are no different to income tax. We know this because HMRC’s annual tax summaries, sent to every taxpayer, combine income tax and NICs in calculating how our taxes have contributed to government spending. So there is no reason why the poorest in the land should be paying 12% on a major proportion of their income, while the richest are paying only 2% on a major proportion of theirs.
Neil Hornsby
Inverness
Boris Johnson is right: it is “absolutely vital to find the money” to invest in the NHS and social care, but not through an unfair increase in national insurance – a regressive tax levied on workers, employers and the self-employed. Instead, raising income tax and capital gains tax would ensure that taxpayers receiving income from wealth and pensions would also be required to contribute, spreading the burden more widely and fairly.
Kim Loader
Goathland, North Yorkshire
While the government is going to tax income more through higher NICs, a couple in their 70s who own their home can inherit a house from a widowed parent, sell it for £300,000 and have no tax to pay. Taxing inheritance more would fund social care for the elderly. It would reduce the iniquity whereby heirs who inherit from parents whose wealth went on care fees are left with depleted inheritances, while those whose parents live autonomously until they die do so much better.
Alan Fairs
Bewdley, Worcestershire