Tax Freedom Day 2014 featured in City AM

The Adam Smith Institute has calculated that Tax Freedom Day 2014 falls on 28th May.

Read City AM's feature on Tax Freedom Day here.

Learn more about Tax Freedom Day here.

Tax Freedom Day 2014 featured in The Daily Telegraph

The Adam Smith Institute has calculated that Tax Freedom Day 2014 falls on 28th May.

Read the Daily Telegraph's feature on Tax Freedom Day below.

Scots face 16 extra days working for taxman

"Independence could mean that workers in Scotland achieve "tax freedom" two weeks later than their counterparts south of the Border, the Treasury has claimed.

"Tax freedom day" is calculated by the Adam Smith Institute as the date in the calendar when people stop working to cover their tax bills and begin to earn for themselves.

"Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said that because Scotland would have a higher deficit than the UK, that could leave taxpayers working for longer before they could reach the date if there was a Yes vote in September's referendum.

"While "tax freedom day" in the UK falls today this year, Treasury analysis suggests that in an independent Scotland it could be 16 days later, on June 13."

Tax Freedom Day 2014 featured in The Daily Express

The Adam Smith Institute has calculated that Tax Freedom Day 2014 falls on 28th May.

Read The Daily Express' feature on Tax Freedom Day here.

Learn more about Tax Freedom Day here.

"We need to control the burden, because spending and high taxes undermine economic growth, as the economists’ graph, the Rahn Curve, illustrates. And complexity does not help either – it imposes further bureaucratic cost on taxpayers.

"Understand, reduce and simplify: that is the message, for tax officials and Chancellors, of Tax Freedom Day."

Joint letter from Adam Smith Institute and The Taxpayers' Alliance featured in The Daily Telegraph

Director of the Adam Smith Institute, Dr Eamonn Butler, and Chief Executive of The Taxpayers' Alliance, Jonathan Isaby, wrote a joint letter to The Daily Telegraph,

Read the letter here.

The Adam Smith Institute has calculated that Tax Freedom Day 2014 falls on 28th May. Learn more about Tax Freedom Day here.

Eamonn Butler writes for The Spectator on Tax Freedom Day

Director of the Adam Smith Institute, Dr Eamonn Butler, wrote a comment piece for The Spectator on Tax Freedom Day.

Read the article here.

The Adam Smith Institute has calculated that Tax Freedom Day 2014 falls on 28th May. Learn more about Tax Freedom Day.

Press Release: Tax Freedom Day falls on 28th May in 2014

Contact Kate Andrews, Communications Manager, for further comments or to arrange an interview: kate@adamsmith.org / 07584 778 207.

• Tax Freedom day falls three days earlier than it did in 2013; George Osborne deserves some credit, but…
• UK residents work 148 days of the year solely to pay taxes; that is every day from January 1 to May 28.
• Cost of government day is 26th June, six days earlier than in 2013, illustrating that the government is making small efforts to stop borrowing from future tax income.  

This year's Tax Freedom Day, the day when Britons stop working for the government and start working for themselves, falls on 28th May, according to Adam Smith Institute calculations.

This means that Britons work 148 days of the year solely to pay their taxes (including direct taxes like income tax and national insurance, and indirect taxes like VAT and corporation tax). This is three days earlier than 2013's Tax Freedom Day, which is not statistically significant.

Tax Freedom Day is designed to illustrate to the public what real level of tax is, which the lengthy, complex nature of Britain’s tax code can often obscure. The UK's Tax Freedom Day is more than a month later than the United States', where citizens start earning for themselves on April 21st.

Cost of Government Day falls on June 26th, six days earlier than it fell in 2013. While this suggests slight improvement from last year, the government continues to drive up the national debt for almost another month after Tax Freedom Day by spending billions of pounds worth of future taxed income.

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 national income (41.09% per cent in 2014), mapping that proportion onto the days of the year.

Director of the Adam Smith Institute, Dr Eamonn Butler, says:

“Tax Freedom Day comes three days earlier this year, but it is still outrageous that the average person in Britain has to work nearly five months of every year solely to pay taxes. Are we really getting five months' worth of value from our bloated government sector? Does it really need to do all the things it has taken upon itself, at our expense?

“In this World Cup year, it is salutary to remember that when England collected the trophy in 1966, Tax Freedom Day fell more than a month earlier – and even then, people complained about the burden. Since then, the burden has edged up decade by decade. But high taxes stifle economic growth. And the higher that taxes are, the more people will try to avoid or evade them. “The Treasury hates Tax Freedom Day because it expresses the real tax burden so starkly. Officials and ministers would much rather rely on stealth taxes and Byzantine complexity in order to conceal the true size of out tax bills. But they won't get away with it – the public has a right to know how much we are being forced to pay in order to support the government.”

Steve Baker, Conservative MP for Wycombe and a member of the Treasury Select Committee adds:

“As an MP, I see how the services provided collectively through the state so often fall short of people’s needs and expectations so it is a shocking fact that Tax Freedom Day falls at the end of May. Even more appalling is that Cost of Government Day falls in late June. The Adam Smith Institute has done a great service by so clearly illustrating the cost of government, the burden of taxation and the scandalous gap between the two. Politicians have a great deal of explaining to do.”

David Ruffley, Conservative MP for Bury St Edmunds, adds:

“Tax Freedom Day is not just an economic argument, it is a moral one. The stubbornly high UK national debt is not just a drag on growth, it is also an unconscionable burden on future generations. To solve this problem we need to do much more to cut the size of the state. This must be accompanied by reductions in personal and corporate tax to unleash the spirit of enterprise that drives economic growth and higher living standards.”

For further comments or to arrange an interview, contact Kate Andrews, Communications Manager, at kate@adamsmith.org / 07584 778 207.

The Adam Smith Institute is an independent libertarian think tank based in London. It advocates classically liberal public policies to create a richer, freer world.

Dr Madsen Pirie writes for BBC News Online

President of the Adam Smith Institute, Dr Madsen Pirie, contributed to a BBC News web article entitled: 'What Should Capitalism Do?'

Read the article here.

"It should act against anti-competitive practices to give people instead the power of free choices between competing goods and services."

ASI's Research Director appears on BBC Newsnight

Reserach Director of the Adam Smith Institute, Sam Bowman, appeared on BBC Newsnight to discuss the minimum wage. Watch the interview here.

ASI Fellow Preston Byrne quoted in City AM

Adam Smith Fellow, Preston Byrne, was quoted in City AM on restructuring legal aid.

Read the article here.

"Adam Smith Institute fellow Preston Byrne has argued that the UK might adopt a different model. "Remuneration structures for legal aid mean that service providers have traditionally had no incentives to compete on price, competing instead on the basis of reputation," he writes."

ASI report 'Burning Down the House' featured in the Wall Street Journal

The Adam Smith Institute report Burning Down the House was featured in the Wall Street Journal article 'Britain's Bad Housing Bet.'

Read the article here.

"As London's Adam Smith Institute put it in a recent report, "Non-participating taxpayers, in addition to paying for the loans, will have to work against them as the infusion of government liquidity increases competition for limited supplies of land." Translation: The injection of a government subsidy adds demand-side heat to an already boiling market."