Emergency Budget 2010: millions get income tax break

The Chancellor has acted on long-term coalition government plans to increase the personal income tax allowance to £10,000.

He used the emergency Budget to announce that the allowance is to rise next April by £1,000 to £7,475, taking some 880,000 people out of the tax system.

In addition, another 23 million basic income tax payers are set to receive a tax cut of £170 a year.

However, those on higher incomes will see their allowance thresholds frozen until 2013.

The Chancellor emphasised that the government is committed to raising the personal allowance threshold to £10,000 as an objective, one to be pursued over the duration of the current Parliament.