According to new research by the Taxpayers’ Alliance, taxes will have been increased almost 300 times by the coalition Government before its term of office ends in 2015.
Despite 119 historic or impending cuts in taxation, 254 tax rises have come into effect, with 45 more planned before the next election, with the result, according to the Alliance that the amount of tax paid in Britain will rise in real terms by 15 per cent by the end of the Government’s tenure.
The Taxpayers’ Alliance (TPA) forensic study of Treasury and HMRC documents looks at how many different tax reliefs, allowances and rates the Government has changed, along with the number of new taxes that have been levied or abolished during its time in office.
In 2009-10, the last year of the previous Government, £513 billion was paid in taxes, which amounts to £549 billion at 2012-13 prices, while by 2015-16, the Government plans to increase that amount to £671 billion or £633 billion in today’s money.
Meanwhile, through other research, the TPA has found that the average family pays £656,000 in tax over their lifetime in direct and indirect tax both over their working lifetimes and in retirement.
Based on the current level of taxes applying over a working lifetime of 40 years and 15 years of retirement the TPA has calculated the total taxes paid by households broken down by income.
This amounts to £1.3m in the highest income quintile, falling to £235,000 in the lowest income bracket. The research also revealed that the four most burdensome individual taxes over a lifetime are Income Tax, VAT, employee National Insurance contributions and Council Tax.
