Media on Tax Freedom Day

Radio
Madsen Pirie on LBC Andrew Pirece show
Sam on BBC Radio Five 'Wake up to Money' and BBC R4 Today Programme

In print

The Daily Mail - VAT increase means you must work three more days a year to escape the taxman
The Daily Telegraph - George Osborne needs a bolder plan for growth
City AM - Time to celebrate Tax Freedom Day
The Daily Express - We've spent five months just paying tax

Online
Tom Clougherty writing for ConservativeHome - Happy Tax Freedom Day 2011!
Douglas Carswell's blog - Happy Tax Freedom Day!

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Old Teaser

30 May 2011

In print, broadcast and online

News that this year's Tax Freedom Day fell on 30th May - three days later than in 2010 - received a great deal of media attention. Below is a selection of the coverage.

This riot of regulators is stifling

Published in the Sunday Times here.

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Old Teaser

29 May 2011

Tom Clougherty argues in the Sunday Times that the regulatory state has grown far too big and intrusive. The government needs to cut it down to size.

Tax Freedom Day: We're Slaves to the state until 30 May

30 May 2011

• Britons have worked 149 days to pay their taxes in 2011 – three days longer than in 2010.
• Regional figures reveal that Londoners have to work the longest to pay off their income tax burden (51days) whilst the Welsh spend the least time paying their income tax (35days)
• UK income taxpayers would have to work for almost a year and a half with all their money going to the government to pay off our national debt.

The Adam Smith Institute, the libertarian think tank, has released calculations today (Monday 30th May 2011) revealing the shocking length of time we work to pay off our tax bill. Britons have worked for a full 5 months this year to pay their taxes, with every penny earned in the UK between January 1 and May 29 taken by the taxman to support government expenditure.

This means that Tax Freedom Day, the day when people stop working for the government and start making cash for themselves, will come on May 30 in 2011 – 3 days later than in 2010.

The main reason for this is that the government has raised VAT, in order to help reduce the UK’s record budget deficit.

New calculations by the ASI also reveal the worrying extent of the UK’s debt. Our burden of debt is so great that UK income taxpayers would need to work for nearly a year and a half (525 days) - with their entire wage packet going to the government, and not a penny being spent on public services – to pay off the national debt.

Dr Madsen Pirie, President of the Adam Smith Institute identified the linkage between the lateness of Tax Freedom Day and the government’s attempt to tackle the deficit and UK debt:

“The last government left an appalling legacy. Its reckless spending has driven Britain into record levels of debt that threaten the lives and happiness of future generations. Bringing down that debt has to be an absolutely urgent priority. However it isn’t enough to merely cut spending. We need targeted tax cuts to encourage economic growth.”

Sam Bowman, Head of Research added: “Tax Freedom Day underlines the huge burden of government on working people’s lives. For five months of the year, we are slaves to the state. No wonder growth is so slow – we need robust tax reform now, bringing lower, simpler, flatter taxes. The government should resolve to make Tax Freedom Day something we can celebrate earlier and earlier each year.”

A full breakdown of how long it takes Britons to pay off each tax can be found in the Notes to Editors (below). The tax burden also varies by region, falling more heavily on some and more lightly on others. The figures below show, in ascending order, how long each region has to work in 2011 to pay income tax:

• Wales 35 days
• North East 36 days
• Northern Ireland 37 days
• North West 37 days
• Yorkshire and the Humber 37 days
• West Midlands 37 days
• East Midlands 38 days
• South West 38 days
• Scotland 38 days
• East of England 42 days
• South East 44 days
• London 51 days

ENDS

Britons as a whole work the following amount of days to pay each of the following taxes:

• Income Tax 39 days
• National Insurance 26 days
• VAT 29 days
• Corporation Tax 12 days
• Fuel duties & petroleum revenue tax 7 days
• Local taxes (business and council tax) 13 days
• Capital gains / inheritance tax 2 days
• Duties on alcohol and tobacco 5 days
• All other taxes 17 days

How is Tax Freedom Day calculated?

• Tax Freedom Day aims to answer a very basic question: ‘how much are Britons actually paying for government?’ It is calculated by comparing general government tax revenue with the Net National Income (NNI). The total of all government tax revenue – direct and indirect taxes, local taxes and National Insurance contributions – is calculated as a percentage of NNI at market prices. This year it comes to 40.8 percent. That percentage is then converted to days of the year, starting from 1 January. The first day of the year that Britons work for themselves rather than the taxman is Tax Freedom Day.
• The Adam Smith Institute is Britain’s leading innovator of free market economic and social policies. For more information on our work, go to www.adamsmith.org.

For more information

• Go to http://adamsmith.org/tax-freedom-day/
• Please contact Sally Thompson (sally@adamsmith.org / 020 7222 4995) for further comment or information 

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Forward Thinking

Read the article in full here.

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26 May 2011

Prof Anthony Evans writes on the ASI's recent publication by Scott Sumner on Nominal Income Targeting in Money Marketing.

Response to Commons vote on EU bailout

24 May 2011

In response to today’s vote on Eurozone financial assistance

Sam Bowman, Head of Research at the Adam Smith Institute, says:

“The eurozone bailouts haven't worked, and MPs are right to try to block Britain's participation in future bailouts. Greece is almost certain to default in the near future, and Ireland will have to default within the next two years on current trends. Portugal is not far behind. Saddling eurozone countries with even more bailout debt will only make their problems worse.

“The government has risked £12.5bn on bailouts for Ireland and Portugal. Throwing more and more money at the eurozone bonfire does nobody any good except senior bondholders who should have known better. Even if it was possible to do so, saving the euro would not be worth the cost to them and us.”

To arrange an interview with Sam Bowman, please contact Sally Thompson, Communications Director, on 07584 778 207, sally@adamsmith.org

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Rail privatization under John Major

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18 May 2011

Dr Eamonn Butler talks to Radio 4 You & Yours about the influence the Adam Smith Institute had on railway privatization, including its suggestions for splitting infrastructure from operations which went into the debate on British rail privatization in the 80s and 90s.

You can listen to his interview here (the article on rail privatization starts approx 17mins into the programme). 

UK poor are better off than ever before, claims thinktank

Read the article in City AM here. 

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17 May 2011

City AM covers the release of the ASI's latest briefing paper on income inequality.

Income inequality doesn't matter

You can read the article in The Washington Times here. 

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13 May 2011

Dalibor Rohac writes in The Washington Times about income inequality following the release of our report 'Does Inequality matter?'

George Osborne hits back at business over regulation and workers' rights

Read the article in full in the Daily Telegraph here.

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Old Teaser

12 May 2011

The Daily Telegraph covers the release of the ASI's latest report calling for the radical change in the way utilities and the transport network are regulated.

It's time to reform the regulators

· Leading regulators examine 25 years of regulatory experience and say how regulation should change in the next 25.

· Blair-era regulators for utilities, communications, rail have had their day, says think-tank.

· The Coalition is failing in its promise to rein back regulation.

· The regulatory offices are expanding – when they should instead be encouraging competition and scaling their bureaucracy back.

In a report released today (Thursday) the independent Adam Smith Institute (ASI) calls for radical changes in the way the privatised utility and transport networks are regulated. The gas, water, electricity, telephones and rail regulators, it says, have lost their independence and have become subservient to national politicians and officials. Regulators should be given a new mission – to make the utilities fully competitive and then phase themselves out.

Margaret Thatcher created the first regulatory offices – such as Ofcom, Ofgem, and Ofwat – as a way of curbing newly privatised utility monopolies. But regulation has become Britain’s fastest-growing industry, says the Institute, and the regulators are strangling the utilities with nitpicking intervention when they should focus on the real concerns of customers. Meanwhile the utilities have become adept at ‘gaming’ the system, using its very complexity to hide profits and inefficiencies.

In the report, five experienced regulators – Stephen Littlechild (electricity), Ian Byatt (water), Graham Corbett (mail), John Swift and Chris Bolt (rail), reflect on how the system has developed over the last quarter century, and where it should go from here. They argue for gradual change in the system and a restoration of independence from government. Professor Littlechild wants regulators to become much less adversarial, and to facilitate negotiated agreements, rather than imposing prices and rules as they do now.

Academic expert Tim Ambler goes further, questioning whether the regulatory offices are still effective, and arguing that the regulatory offices should work harder to make the utilities properly competitive and then dissolve themselves. He argues that in banking and finance too, most of the problems stem from too little competition and too much regulation, rather than the opposite. Regulators should concentrate on creating real competition which in turn will protect customers.

Adam Smith Institute director Dr Eamonn Butler says the need for radical change has become urgent, as regulators have been captured by the politicians and civil servants. They are no longer independent. “The regulatory system needs to be smaller, less bureaucratic and more focused,” he says. “Regulators should focus on opening their markets to competition rather than increasingly detailed control.”

Competition is the best regulator, and the regulatory offices should aim to grow competition and then retire gracefully. Regulators are not something inevitable: we just need to figure out how to run our utilities without them.

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