Personal Allowance Petition Nears 50,000 Signatures

Tax Queen

Tax Expert @ Pie

3 min read

A petition to raise the Personal Allowance from £12,570 to £18,000 is nearing 50,000 signatures and stays open until 30 September 2026, but the government has already rejected the idea, citing a cost of over £40 billion a year, so nothing changes on your Self Assessment for now. The Personal Allowance remains frozen until 2031, meaning fiscal drag will keep quietly increasing what self-employed people, freelancers, and landlords owe each year. The practical takeaway is to make sure you're claiming every allowance you're entitled to and keeping accurate records, which is where self assessment software like Pie Tax can help.

What's Happening

A petition calling on the government to raise the Personal Allowance, the amount you can earn before paying Income Tax, from £12,570 to £18,000 is closing in on 50,000 signatures. It was created by Mike Haynes and is open on the UK Parliament petitions website until 30 September 2026. It's gathering pace at a time when frozen thresholds are quietly pushing more taxpayers into paying more, even though nothing has officially changed yet.

Does This Affect You Right Now?

Not yet, and that's the important bit to hold onto. No threshold has actually changed. Your Personal Allowance is still £12,570, and under current government policy it's due to stay frozen at that level until 2031. What this petition captures, though, is a frustration a lot of self-employed people, freelancers, and landlords already feel in practice: your income keeps creeping up with inflation and rising costs, but the tax-free slice of it hasn't moved since 2021.

That gap has a name: fiscal drag. It happens when wages and profits rise but tax thresholds stay still, quietly pulling more of your income into tax without the government ever having to raise a rate. It's an easy change to miss because there's no headline announcement, just a slightly bigger bill each year for doing broadly the same amount of work.

If you file a Self Assessment return, this matters because it's part of why your tax bill can climb year on year even when your business hasn't grown much in real terms. Our guide to the self-employed tax allowance walks through what you can currently claim to soften that effect, from business expenses to other reliefs that reduce your taxable profit.

What Happened With the Petition So Far

The petition passed the 10,000-signature mark earlier this year, which under parliamentary rules automatically triggers an official government response. Ministers rejected the idea outright, arguing that raising the Personal Allowance to £18,000would cost the Treasury over £40 billion a year, a price tag they said the government wasn't prepared to consider given the current fiscal position.

If the petition reaches 100,000 signatures, it becomes eligible for a debate in Parliament, though reaching that threshold doesn't guarantee MPs will actually schedule one.

This isn't the first time a campaign like this has gone through the process either. An earlier petition called for a rise to £20,000, also drew tens of thousands of signatures, and received a similarly firm government rejection citing the same kind of fiscal cost argument. It's a pattern worth knowing, since it suggests any real change to the threshold is unlikely in the near term, petition or not.

What You Can Actually Do About It

You can't change the threshold yourself, but you can make sure you're not paying more tax than you need to under the rules as they stand today. That means claiming every allowable expense you're entitled to, keeping accurate records throughout the year rather than scrambling to piece things together in January, and genuinely understanding how your allowances apply to your specific situation, particularly if your income sits near a tax band boundary.

This is exactly where good self assessment software earns its keep. Pie Tax tracks your income and expenses as they happen, so you always know roughly where you stand with HMRC instead of guessing until your return is due and hoping for the best. If you're curious about why people choose Pie or want to see how it works day to day, from logging transactions to generating your return, both are worth a look before your next filing deadline arrives.

What This Means Going Forward

Nothing about your Self Assessment obligations changes today, and the Personal Allowance freeze looks set to continue for years yet. But that makes staying on top of your own numbers more important, not less. Find out more about Pie Tax, or get started for free today and let your tax return take care of itself. You can also download the app here.