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Think-tank calls for Britain to celebrate tax freedom day |
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Friday, 01 June 2007 |
The Adam Smith Institute has revealed that today is tax freedom day - the first day of the year that workers earn for themselves, having in the year earned enough to pay off their taxes.
The think-tank calculates tax freedom day, which it wants be to marked
as a public holiday, by comparing all UK taxes (income tax, national
insurance, VAT, excise duties etc) against net national income, and it
says that the Treasury will receive 152 days’ worth of what the average
taxpayer will earn during the current year - more than two-fifths of an
average earner’s wages.
It added that the burden is rising, with this year’s tax freedom day
coming two days later than it did in 2005, and more than a week later
than in 2003.
Institute director Dr Eamonn Butler said: “When people joke that they
spend as much time working for the taxman as they do for themselves, it
is very nearly true.
“The time cannot be far off when a full half of everything we earn does
indeed disappear in taxes – as it does in several countries in Europe.”
“This high tax burden must have a very bad effect on our international
competitiveness and our ability to attract new investment and create
new jobs,” added Butler, who noted that in 1966, tax freedom day fell
on May 2, with taxpayers now having to work a whole extra month more
for the Treasury.
The ASI says that British taxpayers have to work a month more for their
government than those in the United States, where Tax freedom day fell
on April 30, according to the Tax Foundation, but less than citizens in
the Eurozone countries who have the single European currency, who, the
ASI says, “will still be working for their governments for another
three weeks, until June 20".
No one has commented on this article.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 01 June 2007 )
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