We firmly believe Brits pay too much tax. Lower rates of tax always put more money in your pocket and they kick-start the economy, making the system fairer by creating more jobs and prosperity for everyone. Too often we talk about public spending with no reference to the level of tax burden used to pay for it.
Politicians, journalists and economists everywhere have picked up on our unique research on the size of the UK tax burden. In July 2018, we pointed out that it had reached a 49-year high.
After the 2018 Budget, we updated our research to show that the tax burden was increasing even further. It has been picked up by senior politicians and national newspapers, including on the front page of the Times.
The research was updated again when the tax burden officially hit a 50-year high in 2019, and we also published a briefing note on post-war tax burdens by prime minister ahead of the December 2019 general election. When we updated the research again after the October 2021 Budget, our figures led the BBC 10 O’Clock news.
Our findings have become the go-to statistic for the level of tax in the UK, and continue to support all of our campaigns in calling out the high taxes Brits pay and the urgent need for taxes to be cut.
But we understand that high taxes aren’t just about the wider economic picture, but how much working families have to pay. Our landmark lifetime tax research has shown how much households will pay across their lifetimes.
The research, first done in 2015, reached new heights in 2022, when we splashed the £1 million lifetime tax bill across the front pages. We deployed our punchy campaigning approach to make waves with journalists, politicians and the public.
In 2020 we called for alignment of national insurance (NI) and income tax to streamline the tax system and save workers hundreds of pounds each year. At the Spring Statement in 2022 the chancellor heeded our calls, raising the NI threshold by £3,000. It was a big stride forward to simplifying our ridiculously complicated tax system.
With our tax burden research now a fixture of the national debate, we will continue to find new and innovative ways to illustrate that taxes in Britain remain too high.