Overview
- Reform UK announced on Wednesday that it would raise the VAT registration threshold from £90,000 to £150,000 to relieve sole traders and small businesses from the current VAT “cliff edge.”
- The party provided a headline cost of roughly £2.1bn–£2.4bn and said the measure would be funded short term by planned spending cuts and longer term by projected productivity gains, but independent verification of that modelling has not been published.
- As part of the package Reform UK also pledged to reverse quarterly HMRC filing for some sole traders and make the Making Tax Digital programme optional, promising to return to a single annual tax return for many self-employed people.
- The announcement was unveiled in Makerfield by Nigel Farage and linked to local candidate Rob Kenyon, whose past social media posts were criticised and defended by party leaders, making the pledge both a policy and campaign move.
- Critics from the Conservative Party and some economists warned the change would be costly to public finances, while Reform framed the move as a Brexit-enabled freedom to set a higher threshold than the EU’s €100,000 guideline.