Treasury launches mobile phone app for taxpayers

A MOBILE phone application which calculates taxpayers’ personal contributions to different areas of government spending is being launched by the Treasury today.

The programme allows users to work out how much tax they can expect to pay and how it will be spent.

It will be downloadable from the Apple store and Google Play. It will also be accessible from the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) website.

The innovation is part of a drive by Chancellor George Osborne to ensure that taxpayers have a better idea about how their money is used by the government.

From 2014/15, some 20 million taxpayers will receive personal statements detailing their contributions to state spending.

The app will allow taxpayers to make the calculations themselves.

More than half of taxpayers – 57 per cent – do not know how much income tax and national insurance they pay in a year, according to a poll commissioned by the HMRC from TNS Omnibus.