Member

I shall add a little-known fact—we all learn something. National insurance contributions were originally free of tax; they were tax free when originally introduced, but at that time they were flat rate. The Government decided that it would be a lot easier if they were not treated as tax free and that they would just include it in the personal tax allowance. In fact, hidden within the existing personal tax allowance is the provision for removing tax relief on national insurance contributions. It does not quite work like that now, but it is related.