In the Middle Ages a serf only had to work four months of the year

[Tony Gosling]

“In the Middle Ages a serf only had to work four 
months of the year for the feudal landlord, 
whereas in modern Britain people have to toil 
five months for Osborne’s tax gatherers.”


Tax Freedom Day has finally arrived

http://www.adamsmith.org/news/tax-freedom-day-has-finally-arrived/
Written by sally | Wednesday, May 29th, 2013

Tax Freedom Day falls on 30th May in 2013

Tax Freedom day is pushed back again as coalition 
fails to cut burden of government on UK taxpayers.

Cost of government day 13th July, two days 
earlier than in 2012, due to effects of austerity programme

UK residents can rejoice as the Adam Smith 
Institute reveals that they have finally stopped 
paying the taxman and started to put their 
earnings in their own pockets. Tax Freedom 
Day­the day when the average Briton finishes 
their stint working for George Osborne and begins 
to work for themselves, falls on 30th May.

For 150 days of the year, every penny the average 
person earns is sent to the Treasury, according 
to Adam Smith Institute calculations. This means 
that no less of a worker’s year is going to the 
government than last year, when extra taxes 
pushed TFD from 28th May to 29th May (including 
an extra day from the leap year).

Though UK taxpayers can thank policymakers that 
they will not have to wait until July, like 
France, to start earning for themselves, they 
will remain jealous of American and Australian 
earners, who switch from paying into their 
chancellors’ bank accounts to their own by mid-April.

Since the government is spending hundreds of 
billion more pounds than it takes in through the 
tax system, the cost of government day is not for 
another month and a half. That is, if we imagined 
the government did all its spending before 
households, charities and firms, every pound of 
expenditure in the economy would come from the state until 13th July.

The ASI calculates Tax Freedom Day by measuring 
local taxes, direct and indirect national taxes, 
and national insurance contributions as a 
proportion of the UK’s net national income­this 
year that came to 41.5 per cent­before mapping 
the proportion onto the days of the year.

The ASI's Director, Dr Eamonn Butler, says “Tax 
Freedom Day, which the Adam Smith Institute has 
been calculating for 25 years, is the plainest 
way to show what the tax burden really is. That 
is why the Treasury hates it. They of course want 
to conceal how much tax we pay, which is why they 
are so keen on stealth taxes.”

“But we put in every tax, including stealth taxes 
– income tax, national insurance, council tax, 
excise duties, air passenger taxes, fuel and 
vehicle taxes and all the rest – and show just 
how long the average person has to work to pay 
their share of them all. The stark truth is that 
this burden costs us all 150 days of hard labour 
every year. That's not how long a rich person has 
to work – it is the time the average person must 
labour for the tax collectors.”

“In the Middle Ages a serf only had to work four 
months of the year for the feudal landlord, 
whereas in modern Britain people have to toil 
five months for Osborne’s tax gatherers.”

“An increasing number of economists believe that 
Britain's taxes are too high and are choking off 
recovery. Some politicians say they need to keep 
taxes high in order to balance the government's 
books. But the trouble with governments is that 
they always spend everything they raise in tax – 
and then as much more as they can get away with 
through borrowing. Just as the rest of us have 
had to cut back, so should the government. The UK 
economy would be a lot healthier for it.”

Steve Baker, Conservative MP and member of the 
executive of the 1922 committee, adds: “Many 
congratulations to the Adam Smith Institute for 
once again revealing the shocking truth about 
taxes and overspending. This doomsday machine of 
deficit spending, debt and currency debasement 
will eventually blow up and there is no kindness 
in pretending otherwise. Politicians who are 
serious about the prosperity of our country and 
the wellbeing of the poorest within it should take note.”

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