Introduction With Scottish independence now back on the table, Scottish taxpayers will be wondering what impact such a move could have on the country’s fiscal position. The Scottish government’s fiscal framework is currently managed in agreement with HM Treasury. This underpins the tax and welfare spending powers that have... Read more...
The chancellor recently unveiled his budget for the coming financial year. The figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility showed the national debt will increase to £2.5 trillion next year.[1] Yet this is only part of the picture with regard to the UK’s debt.A fuller picture of the UK government’s... Read more...
Corporation tax headline rate rise to match China’s 25 per cent announced for 2023. This is set to push the UK’s marginal effective rate to the highest among G7 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, US) and BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) economies. At 19 per cent, the UK enjoys... Read more...
Introduction The Conservative party’s record on tax policy is contested. Previous research found that the Conservative government of Winston Churchill cut the tax burden as a proportion of GDP by more than any other postwar prime minister.[1] The 2019 Conservative manifesto promised that “Conservatives want to give you freedom –... Read more...
Introduction The Department for Education started publishing schools’ spending data for England almost 10 years ago. In that time there have been significant changes in education, not least the conversion of most secondary schools from maintained ones into academies. Over 500 free schools are now open across every region of... Read more...
Executive summary Due to the coronavirus crisis, many businesses have been ordered to close for much of the past year, while many others have had to implement costly and disruptive practices to mitigate the virus. Unemployment has been kept in check by furloughing ten million jobs, while economic output has... Read more...
In 2021-22 the share of GDP extracted in tax, the ‘tax burden’, will reach its highest level in 52 years at 34.2 per cent of GDP. The previous high was a one-year spike in 1969-70. Smoothing out volatility with five-year averages shows the tax burden is now at its highest... Read more...
Overview: The total cost of members of parliament was £127.6m in the 2019-20 financial year according to figures released today by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA). This was a 6.47 per cent increase on the £119.9 million spent in 2018-19. Britain’s most expensive sitting MP was speaker Sir Lindsay... Read more...
Introduction University vice-chancellors are handsomely paid for their work, with an average salary of over £250,000. In addition to these bumper salaries, they are sometimes also afforded additional perks, including residences with their own staff. In contrast, many students undertaking courses at their institutions are going on rent strikes because... Read more...
Online taxes have been in place in many parts of the world for a number of years. They are used to try and level the playing field between online and traditional businesses. This paper provides a literature review of online taxes in India, France and the USA. This assesses the... Read more...
Introduction Many councillors in local government across the UK receive modest allowances appropriate to the work they do representing taxpayers. Yet while many councillors’ workload is extensive, there are rarely appropriate metrics used in the determination of pay. People who live just miles apart from each other may be represented... Read more...
Our landmark War on Waste investigation with the Daily Mail, published in November 2020, exposed £5.6 billion of wasted taxpayers' money. A breakdown, by area, of wasteful spending can be found below: Read more...
Executive summary The need to balance the government’s books in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic can only mean one of two fiscal policies: spending restraint or tax rises. A significantly weakened economy and the fact that recent increases in the tax burden have already created the highest burden in... Read more...
Introduction Student loan debt ballooned to £140 billion at the end of March 2020. The government forecasts that this will reach £560 billion by the middle of this century. Combined with the fact that the government also predicts that only 25 per cent of current full-time undergraduate students who take... Read more...
Foreword by Douglas Carswell Do you ever get the feeling that it doesn’t really matter who you vote for because the same sort of people end up in charge? Does it sometimes feel as if key positions in public life always go to the same kind of well-connected quangocrats?Often... Read more...
Introduction Public inquiries are a way to scrutinise serious events that have occurred and hold people and organisations to account on a large range of issues. While important in certain circumstances, inquiries are sometimes seen as a way for politicians to avoid tricky issues. Public inquiries have become common in... Read more...
Overview: The government announced in September 2020 that from January 2021, duty free purchases will be extended to British passengers travelling to EU countries. However, tax-free sales in airports of some goods – such as electronics and clothing – will end for passengers travelling to non-EU countries. Such a change... Read more...
IntroductionThe Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) annually publishes comparative health expenditure and financing statistics for member nations. Expressed in monetary terms and as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) or healthcare expenditure, they are often referenced when comparing the performance and medical outcomes of different international healthcare... Read more...
IntroductionQuasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations (quangos) are a mixture of executive agencies, non-departmental public bodies and public corporations which hold significant responsibilities over areas of policy that affect taxpayers in their everyday lives. Last year, they cost a total of £206 billion.[1] Their authority ranges from bodies which provide expert advice to... Read more...
Introduction The BBC has held a privileged role in the British television, radio and online landscape over many years, dominating the media environment. While alternative media platforms provide content that the public is willing to optionally pay for, the BBC enjoys a taxpayer-funded guarantee which shields them from competitive pressure.... Read more...
Introduction Membership of trade unions, for both public and private sector workers, has been declining for many years: 23.5 per cent were members in 2019. In the public sector, it is at the second lowest level since records began in 1995, at 52.3 per cent. Most male public sector employees... Read more...
The TaxPayers' Alliance submitted to the Integrated Review of Security Defence, Development and Foreign Policy on 11th September 2020. Read the submission in full. Read more...
Executive summary From 2016-17 to 2018-19, councils in England spent £6.6 billion on commercial property, 80 per cent of which is accounted for by just 49 local authorities, predominantly in the South East.[1] Since 2010-11, the amount spent on commercial properties by councils has increased from £53 million to £2.2... Read more...
Executive Summary High Speed 2 (HS2) should have been scrapped, but with it now proceeding, discipline must be restored to the project. The final bill for Europe’s largest infrastructure project could be £150 billion. In announcing the decision to proceed with HS2 to the House of Commons, the prime minister... Read more...