Monday, June 02, 2008

Hooray for Tax Freedom Day

Today is the day that you and I start earning money for ourselves rather than the Government. Tax Freedom Day imagines that you pay off all of your annual tax bill up front, giving a stark illustration of exactly how much money is being thrown at this Government. Back in 1997, you would have started keeping your pennies on May 26th. As clear as this is, it is still muddled by Government obfuscation. If Government borrowing is taken into account, Tax Freedom day would fall much later on June 14th.


Stealth taxes make illustrations such as this all the more valuable. Have a look at the Adam Smith Institute website for more details.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah, with VAT there can never really be a Tax Freedom Day!

Unknown said...

Actually VAT has been taken into consideration in the calculation. If you look on the Adam Smith website, you'll see that the biggest leap recorded was due to Geoffrey Howe's first budget in 1979 when he increased VAT to 15%.

Anonymous said...

Paul - a good idea would be to do a local pie-chart to see what exactly the day is we are free from Lib-Dem financial incompetence (and don't say the next local election day!).

Anonymous said...

I remember the gasps in the house when Howe announced the VAT hike. I believe the prior rate was 8% so it almost doubled!