There's a sharp difference of emphasis between certain media outlets concerning the changes to the tax system which come into effect today.
The most striking difference is between the main articles on the Sky News website and the BBC News website.
The obvious contrast is the way the BBC places a strong emphasis on one particular element of the tax reforms - the abolition of the top rate of tax for higher earners. Their headline, the opening paragraphs and the closing section all concentrate on that drop from 50% to 45%.
Sky News, in contrast, chooses a more general headline than the BBC and places its emphasis (though much less strongly) on the rise in individual personal allowances to £9,440, which will particularly benefit lower earners.
In the BBC account, that rise to £9,440 is relegated to a single paragraph (paragraph 6). The Sky News account relegates the fall in the top rate of tax to a single paragraph (paragraph 4), but it also mentions it prominently in its sub-headline.
The contrast in focus is a striking one, isn't it?
I can imagine that coalition ministers will be happier with Sky's sense of priorities while Labour are sure to much happier with the BBC's sense of priorities, as Labour are also making the fall in the top rate of tax their main focus of attack (while not talking much about the rise in personal allowances).
Please take a read for yourselves below.
Incidentally, there's also a telling contrast in focus between the Telegraph and the Guardian.
The Guardian, wearing its 'Guardian goggles', goes for a spot of banker-bashing:
Tax cut saves bankers £54k a year Labour party figures show 643 bankers will get combined tax cut worth £34.6mThe Telegraph, presumably wearing its 'Telegraph goggles', focuses on the concerns of small businesses over red tape:
Chaos over biggest employment tax shake-up in 70 years Businesses and families are heading into a “nightmare” today, amid fears that the biggest employment tax shake-up in 70 years will ensnare companies in red tape.
Anyhow, back to the contrast between the BBC and Sky:
Raft Of Tax Reforms Come
Into
Effect In UKThe start of the new financial year sees individual personal allowances increased and the top rate of tax cut.
Workers will pay no tax until they earn more than £9,440 under the changes
Two million people could be removed from paying income tax altogether from today as a raft of reforms come into effect.
Among the changes are a rise in the personal allowance which will mean no one pays any tax until they earn more than £9,440.
The threshold for the higher rate of tax - above which people pay tax at 40% - will also drop from £34,370 to £32,010, excluding the personal allowance.
At the same time the top rate of income tax falls in 2013/14 from 50% to 45% for those whose taxable income exceeds £150,000.
And the start of the new financial year also signals a rise in basic state pension to £110.15 per week, an increase of 2.5%.
But there will be a freeze on the level of income pensioners can receive before they have to pay tax - the so-called "granny tax".
The tax allowance for people aged 65 and older is set at £10,500.
Last week, housing benefit was cut for council house tenants with more bedrooms than they need - dubbed the "bedroom tax".
The annual increase in tax credits and other working-age benefits will also be cut to just 1%, well below the rate of inflation.
But Labour claims UK households will be £891 a year worse off on average as a result of the large-scale reforms.
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said: "The whole country will today see whose side this Conservative-led Government is really on and who is paying the price for their total economic failure."
Cut in top rate of income tax to 45% comes into effect
A number of tax and benefit changes have come into effect
A cut in the top rate of income tax from 50 pence in the pound to 45 pence has come into effect.
The reduction, which was announced by Chancellor George Osborne in his 2012 Budget, affects people with incomes of more than £150,000.
Other tax and benefit changes that start on 6 April include the freeze on the level of income pensioners can receive before they have to pay tax.
Dubbed the "granny tax", the amount will no longer rise with inflation.
The tax allowance level for people aged 65 and older has instead been set at £10,500.
Pension rise
For almost everyone else the amount people can earn before paying income tax has risen to £9,440, leaving an extra £267 a year in the pockets of millions of basic rate taxpayers.
However, the chancellor paid for this cut in part by bringing down the threshold for 40% tax to £41,450, adding 400,000 people to that tax band.
Meanwhile, most tax credits and working age benefits, including Jobseeker's Allowance, are being increased by 1% - below the rate of inflation.
Pensioners get a larger rise in the state pension, which goes up by 2.5% to £110 a week.
Child benefit has been frozen for a third year.
The reduction in the top rate of income tax sparked a political row when it was first announced last year.
Labour said the coalition government was giving an unfair tax cut to the richest people in the country, while the Conservatives said the 50% level damaged UK growth and competitiveness, making Britain a less attractive place for overseas investment.
Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps MP said that all the changes coming into effect on Saturday were "really good for hard-working people".
He added: "Twenty-four million people will benefit and a further 2.2 million people will be taken out of that tax entirely under this measure today."
However, shadow chancellor Ed Balls said that as a result of the changes, working families would be up to £4,000 worse off, while millionaires get average tax cuts of £100,000.
Mr Balls added: ""The whole country will today see whose side this Conservative-led government is really on and who is paying the price for their total economic failure."
Labour says the freezing of the tax allowance for pensioners is an unfair attack on elderly people. The Conservatives counter that the allowance level remains higher than for people of working age, and that the government has increased the state pension by more than the former Labour government had planned.
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