Tax Freedom Day is the first day of the year in which a nation as a whole has theoretically earned enough income to pay its taxes. (Wiki)
In the US in 2015 it was 24th April. Not so good in the UK: 3rd June in 2016. The Adam Smith Institute does the sums in the UK but another organisation also tries to call the government to account: The TaxPayers’ Alliance.
You can imagine that it isn’t hard to tell the difference between a ray of sunshine and a TaxPayers’ Alliance press release. However, their latest is bracingly good – at least for those of us living in Hammersmith and Fulham. They have looked at Council Tax bills across the UK from 1997/98 to 2017/18. The average band D rate has gone up by 57%.
It would be churlish not to point out that in this period Hammersmith and Fulham were Labour controlled for twelve years and Conservative for eight years. I ascribe a lot of H&F’s exemplary budgetary discipline to close contests at the ballot box.
