Threshold freezes to deliver tax hikes Middle earners face paying £1,905 more a year in tax by 2028 because of frozen tax thresholds. The £12,570 personal allowance for 20% income tax and £50,270 threshold for the 40% rate have been frozen since March 2021 and will stay at these levels until at least April 2028. Analysis by Interactive Investor shows that someone earning £50,000 paid £12,224 tax in 2022/23. If their pay tracks Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts and climbs 21% by 2028, their tax bill would rise 35% to £16,446. If wages climb 21%, someone earning £15,000 would see their tax bill more than double from £878 in 2022 to £1,805 by 2028, while a worker earning £20,000 would pay £3,748 in 2028, up from £2,499. The OBR expects 2.6m more people to be dragged into the higher tax bracket by 2028. Alice Guy of Interactive Investor comments: “In times of high inflation, fiscal drag is the ultimate stealth tax, allowing the taxman to take an ever-bigger slice of the pie as our wages rise.”