{"id":34474,"date":"2026-02-18T22:23:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T03:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/02\/18\/rise-in-isle-of-man-tax-free-pay-allowance-totally-positive\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T22:23:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T03:23:12","slug":"rise-in-isle-of-man-tax-free-pay-allowance-totally-positive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/02\/18\/rise-in-isle-of-man-tax-free-pay-allowance-totally-positive\/","title":{"rendered":"Rise in Isle of Man tax-free pay allowance ‘totally positive’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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PA Media<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tuesday’s budget included a \u00a32,250 rise in the personal allowance<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Manx Businesses and pressure groups have welcomed what is the largest single rise in tax-free take home pay for workers, following the announcement of the budget.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Outlined by newly-appointed Treasury Minister Chris Thomas, workers will now be able to earn \u00a317,000 tax-free – a rise of \u00a32,250.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The hike in personal tax allowance, which will cost \u00a325m, partly compensates workers for a reduction in a proposed minimum wage rise to 5% following heavy criticism by businesses and pressure groups of the originally planned 9.9% hike.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Chairman of the Local Economy Forum (LEF), Chris Robertshaw said the increase in personal allowance was “totally positive”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The LEF campaigns on the interests of the Isle of Man’s businesses and had warned against the now-shelved 9.9% minimum wage rise amid fears businesses would not be able to absorb such a hike overnight.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Chris Robertshaw was MHK for Douglas East between 2010 and 2021<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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The new tax allowance, which doubles to \u00a334,000 for couples, was three times that originally planned in the budget before Thomas’s appointment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The rise will equate to a take-home pay similar to what a 9.9% minimum wage rise would have seen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Robertshaw said: “We simply couldn’t suppress the personal tax allowance any longer – it needed to go up in line with inflation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“The amount of tax over the last five years has shot up yet in no way has that resulted in reducing the deficit.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He argued the general public, not central government, was best placed to reinvest and revive the economy as a direct result of having more take-home pay than before.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“It’s a totally positive situation. Today we’ve seen a solid step forward, seeing the treasury minister throw down the gauntlet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“We were going in the wrong direction before, with high taxation harming the wellbeing of the economy”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The timing of such fiscal changes has previously come under scrutiny, with the rise planned to take effect on 1 April – five months before the island’s general election.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“It’s late in the day,” Robertshaw said, “but it’s a very positive change and definitely enjoys the support of the local economy and taxpayers generally.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Despite the LEF’s praise, the move has been criticised by some MHKs for its cost to the island’s reserves.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Crossroads Care chief executive, Jackie Betteridge, was pleased by the budget<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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The LFE’s fears about the now scrapped near 10% minimum wage rise were echoed by the care sector on the island, including Crossroads Care – which has 500 islanders under its jurisdiction and over 120 staff members.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Chief executive Jackie Betteridge said: “The minimum wage is something very close to our heart, we pay our staff the going wage but it has a knock on effect.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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She added if her company were to give a pay rise to a staff member who also receives a carers allowances, they in turn would have to work fewer hours as they would go over the \u00a3210 weekly earnings limit to qualify for the payment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“I don’t see how that helps the economy, it’s not one size fits all,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Betteridge said, as a third sector organisation, the prospect of dealing with a tall wage rise and incorporating mandatory rises across the board for staff has been “worrying”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Welcoming the overall benefits of the personal allowance rise, she said: “More people will have more money to spend how they need.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“We haven’t reached a panacea, but it’s better than it was.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Along with the personal allowance rise, Thomas also announced an inflationary rises in many benefits, including carers allowance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Betteridge said that continued to acknowledge that “carers are real, they really are the backbone of the island’s care system”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PA Media Tuesday’s budget included a \u00a32,250 rise in the personal allowance Manx Businesses and pressure groups have welcomed what is the largest single rise in tax-free take home pay for workers, following the announcement of the budget. Outlined by newly-appointed Treasury Minister Chris Thomas, workers will now be able to earn \u00a317,000 tax-free – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,21,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-market","category-news","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}