Government’s relentless spending means Brits are paying the biggest amount of tax since the 1980s, think tank declares
IFS said £17bn of rises are planned between now and 2020, meaning tax will account for 37% of national income
BRITS will be paying the biggest amount of tax since the mid-Eighties because of the Government’s relentless spending, a think tank declared today.
The Institute of Fiscal Studies said £17 billion of tax rises are planned between now and the 2020, meaning tax will account for 37 per cent of national income – the highest proportion since 1986.
And the IFS said further tax hikes will be necessary into the 2020s as the Chancellor desperately tries to bring Britain’s spiralling debts under control.
In all an EXTRA £34 billion-worth of austerity – either tax increases or spending cuts - may be required to balance the books by 2025.
The IFS separately warned the ‘ringfence’ protecting overseas aid and pension benefits would mean big cuts are likely for schools, defence and public safety.
In comments that will infuriate Tory backbenchers, the IFS said while overseas aid had soared 40 per cent since 2010, spending on adult social care had fallen by more than 6 per cent.
Chancellor Philip Hammond has already scrapped George Osborne’s target of balancing the books by 2020.
But IFS director Paul Johnson warned the new Chancellor may miss his goal of doing so within the following five years.
Mr Johnson said: “Even on central forecasts, that is going to require extending austerity towards the mid-2020s. If the economy does less well than hoped then we may see yet another set of fiscal rules consigned to the dustbin.”
The IFS said while £17 billion of tax rises were likely in this Parliament, Government departmental spending would be 13 per cent lower by 2019-2020 than in 2010-2011.