Writing in the Times today, David Cameron made a moral case for cutting taxes. Good. It’s not heard often enough.
What is morally wrong is government spending money as if it grows on trees. Every single pound of public money started as private earning. Every million in the Treasury represents a huge amount of hard work: early morning alarms, long commutes, hours spent on the factory floor, the office, the hospital ward or the classroom.
Excellent stuff, Prime Minister. Almost as stirring as the essay by Eamonn Butler in our 2020 Tax Commission’s Single Income Tax. (Well worth reading if you haven’t already. It starts on page 79, download here).
There’s just one problem. The Coalition Government has hiked taxes as the figures below illustrate. And the Chancellor’s plans laid out in Budget 2014 involve hiking them again.
£513 billion in 2009-10, representing 36.5% of GDP
£648 billion in 2014-15, representing 37.0% of GDP
£778 billion in 2018-19, representing 38.1% of GDP
These numbers shouldn’t be going up, Mr Cameron. They should be coming down. We need you and all politicians to wage a War on Waste so that spending and tax can fall to 33 per cent of GDP. That would make room for the substantial and comprehensive reform set out by the 2020 Tax Commission that our bloated tax system so desperately needs.