U.K. Lawmakers Approve Budget Tax Cuts as Focus Turns to Brexit

(Bloomberg) -- U.K. lawmakers approved government plans to bring forward cuts to income tax and other changes to taxation announced Monday by Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond in his budget statement.

Members of Parliament voted in favor of the government’s budget resolutions, which allow 80 tax measures to take effect immediately. It paves the way for the government’s Finance Bill to being its passage through Parliament to make the changes permanent.

The key measure was the decision to bring forward by a year an increase to Britons’ tax-free personal allowance to 12,500 pounds ($16,250) a year, and to raise the threshold at which they start paying a higher rate of income tax.

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