Research papers

Terms of Endearment

The Eurozone crisis looks set to potentially trigger a treaty change. This provides a broader opportunity for changing Britain’s relationship with the EU. Read more...

Public Sector Pensions Gap

This note exposes how small the gap is between the number of people paying into unfunded public sector pension schemes (‘active members’) and the number drawing their pension (‘pension recipients’). Read more...

Trade Union Funding 2011

Since the TaxPayers' Alliance first revealed the level of taxpayer funding of trade unions last year it has become a major political issue. Read more...

Industrial Masochism

The carbon floor price introduced in Budget 2011 threatens to increase energy prices in Britain while reducing them elsewhere in Europe. Read more...

Local Motoring Taxes

Earlier research has shown that motoring taxes at their current rates cannot be justified by the need for spending on the roads and the contribution of road transport to climate change. Read more...

Everyday Tax Transparency

A critical part of the Government’s work on cutting spending is to introduce greater transparency, so taxpayers can see how their money is spent. Tax transparency is just as important, so that people know how much they are paying. Read more...

Midlands Councils' Flights

In the first in a new series of regional research notes focusing on the Midlands, the TaxPayers’ Alliance can reveal the cost of flights by authorities in the area over the last two years.  Our findings show that 48 councils in the region have continued to spend money on air... Read more...

Abolish National Insurance

National Insurance is almost indistinguishable from Income Tax in its function of raising revenue for the Government and in the way it affects incentives for employees.  Read more...

Wasting Lives 2011

This paper updates the TaxPayers‘ Alliance‘s 2008 publication Wasting Lives: A statistical analysis of NHS performance in a European context since 1981. It details the poor performance of the NHS when compared with European peers, despite huge increases in funding over the last decade. Read more...

Council Award Ceremonies

With pressure on the budgets of local authorities and council tax having doubled over the past decade, councils need to do all they can to control unnecessary spending and deliver better value for money.  Read more...

TfL Surplus Staff

Earlier this year the TaxPayers’ Alliance uncovered details of the Royal Mail surplus staff scheme.  Read more...

Update: Trade Union Rich List 2011

In June the TaxPayers’ Alliance published the 2011 Trade Union Rich List. It detailed the highest paid union bosses in 2009-10. This note reveals brand new figures, showing pay and benefits from 2010-11.  Read more...

£27.4 billion not collected by the taxman

The TaxPayers' Alliance (TPA) today reveals that Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has given up on £27.4 billion of tax revenue in the last five years. The findings are contained in a new TPA report for the 2020 Tax Commission (a joint project by the TPA and Institute of Directors). If the Government simplified the tax code, errors on this scale... Read more...

Let Them Eat Carbon

Ordinary people are paying a ruinous price for the attempts politicians make to control greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change policies dramatically raise electricity bills; make it much more expensive to drive to work or fly on holiday; put manufacturing workers out of a job and sometimes even make your food... Read more...

DfT Internet Usage

After we uncovered which websites Department for Work and Pensions staff had been visiting, we received a Freedom of Information response from the Department for Transport, which covered their six month internet history from January to the end of May this year.  Read more...

Spending Cuts Poll 2011

A major new YouGov / TaxPayers’ Alliance poll of 2,732 British adults reveals that the public support billions in spending cuts to foreign aid, high speed rail, trade union funding and a Green Investment bank.  Read more...

TPA Verdict on the Coalition

During the last General Election, we published a manifesto which set out our objectives for this Parliament. We promised then that we would judge any new government against that standard. Read more...

The TaxPayers’ Alliance Manifesto: 1 Year On

Shortly before the last General Election, the TaxPayers’ Alliance produced a manifesto. We pledged to judge any new Government on the standard it set. The manifesto set out recommendations in three areas – tax & spending, reforming services and democracy & transparency – and divided them between measures where it expected to see action... Read more...

Corporation Tax Policy Brief

Corporation Tax is not fit for purpose. This new Briefing Note for the 2020 Tax Commission, written by Commissioner and Associate Professor of Economics at the ESCP Europe Business School Anthony J. Evans, measures the tax against four key criteria, and finds that it drives down wages; lowers returns for... Read more...

Local Policing Summaries

Police authorities are required by law to produce a Local Policing Summary every year. This summary is meant to let the public in each area know how their force is doing with meeting targets and where they see their priorities for the coming year.  Read more...

HS2 Capacity Analysis

The Government’s proposed high speed rail line will not deliver the capacity needed. This report reveals for the first time a comprehensive list of which towns will be worse off and gives details of how each place could be negatively hit by worse journey times, fewer seats and/or fewer trains... Read more...

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