New TaxPayers' Alliance analysis has revealed the size of the average family's tax bill over the course of a lifetime. Among the key findings in the report are:
- Over a lifetime, an average household will pay £734,240 (in 2013-14 prices) in direct and indirect taxes, an increase of 2.3 per cent on last year (£717,650)
- This is equivalent to the total income of a household over 19 years
- Over a lifetime, an average household in the bottom 20 per cent of earners will pay £282,545 in direct and indirect taxes, whereas a household in the top 20 per cent of earners will pay £1,488,275 in direct and indirect taxes
Over a lifetime, the average household pays:
- £253,040 in Income Tax
- £146,775 in VAT
- £92,795 in Employee's National Insurance Contributions
- £59,955 of Council Tax
This new analysis puts the sums spent by government in to context.
- The Department for International Development's Overseas Aid Budget in 2013, £11.46 billion, is equivalent to the total lifetime tax paid by 15,610 families
- The £131 million NHS e-referral system, which is so bad that fax machines are being dusted off, is equivalent to the lifetime tax bill of 178 families
- When the Ministry of Defence spent £6 million on ear plugs found to be not fit for purpose, they blew the equivalent to the lifetime tax bill of 8 families
- The NHS' botched hoarding of tamiflu stock cost £49 million - the total lifetime contribution to the Treasury of 66 families
- There were £5.1 billion in "departmental losses" in 2013-14, equivalent to the lifetime tax bill of 6,945 families
Commenting on the research, Jonathan Isaby, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said:
"This new analysis shows just how heavy the burden of taxation falls on each and every family across Britain, pushing up the cost of living. Every arm of local and central government must redouble its efforts to root out unnecessary spending and inefficiency in everything they do, so that not a penny of this extraordinary bill is wasted. Britain's tax bill is too high - it must come down, and that means cutting out wasteful spending."
The research uses data from the Office of National Statistics' Effects of Taxes and Benefits on Household Income, 1977 to Financial Year 2014 and Gross Domestic Product per head.