Andrew Griffith says the corporate tax return has 985 boxes
Sep 17, 2026 Analysis

How complex is the corporation tax return? And is it getting worse?

In his first major speech as Shadow Chancellor, Andrew Griffith said that the UK corporate tax return has 985 boxes. I used the same number in an article I wrote earlier in the year for the Financial Times, and so BBC Verify contacted me today to check the figure. It’s wrong. Depending on how you […]
The impact of the proposed tourist tax across England
Sep 12, 2026 Policy

England’s new tourist tax: what it raises, who pays, and what it costs

Mayors across England are to be given the power to charge a tourist tax on overnight stays, expected to be around 5%. It would apply to British and foreign visitors alike. The proposal has already generated competing claims about its impact. So we’ve built an independent, fully open model to answer three questions: how much […]
Future Jobs roadmap
Sep 10, 2026 Policy

Universities UK: a £6bn lesson in bad tax policy

We’re getting into Budget lobbying season. The latest is from Universities UK, who want a tax cut for employers – a new National Insurance exemption for graduates and others under 25. But their only research involved asking employers if they wanted a tax cut. They didn’t bother to calculate the cost, which turns out to […]
A village sub-post office in Mundesley, Norfolk, with Post Office signage, red awnings and a customer at the door
Sep 5, 2026 Investigations

The SRA was going to prosecute the Post Office’s lawyers. Then it stopped.

The Post Office told wrongly-accused postmasters their compensation offers were secret, and couldn’t be shown to anyone but a lawyer. That wasn’t true. They could have shown the offers to friends, other postmasters and the media – but the Post Office gagged them. The Solicitors Regulation Authority spent three years investigating, and was going to […]
A terrace of brick houses covered in letting agents' To Let boards
Aug 5, 2026 Analysis

Property118’s tribunal win – it doesn’t help their clients; it looks vulnerable to appeal

We wrote in 2023 about a complex landlord tax avoidance scheme sold by an unregulated firm called Property118. HMRC subsequently opened enquiries into Property118’s clients, and determined that the firm should have disclosed the scheme. The First-tier Tribunal has just published a ruling on the narrow question of whether the scheme should have been disclosed […]
A tax to fund social care
Jul 27, 2026 Analysis

A modest proposal for a new tax

I have a brilliant idea for a new tax. The rules are simple: This is, obviously, insane. Except it’s real The above description is, near enough, how catastrophic adult social care costs work in England today. The deck of cards is the DHSC’s own estimate that “one in seven individuals over 65 will face care […]
First Minister John Swinney speaking at a Scottish Government podium
Jul 25, 2026 Analysis • Policy

New data suggests Scotland’s 48p tax rate may be losing money

People often talk about the Laffer curve: the idea that if you raise a tax beyond a certain point, you may in fact reduce revenues. Laffer curve effects are rather more common in newspaper headlines than in actual tax data. But that may be about to change – we’ve a new analysis showing that Scotland’s […]
New Chancellor of the Exchequer John Healey
Jul 21, 2026 Analysis

John Healey should cut National Insurance, not raise the personal allowance

We have a new Chancellor – and it looks like a tax cut may be surprisingly high on his agenda. Andy Burnham has said the freezing of income tax thresholds was “the thing I heard the most on the doorsteps”, and that it was “lodged in my mind”. The personal allowance – the amount you […]
Photo of Nigel Farage in the House of Commons
Jul 17, 2026 Investigations

Reform may owe tax on Nigel Farage’s £5m gift

Christopher Harborne, a British-Thai billionaire, gave Nigel Farage £5m in 2024. Genuine gifts are usually tax-free, and when this article was first published our conclusion was that the £5m was probably not taxable. On 15 July 2026 the Guardian reported that in March 2024 – a few weeks before the gift – Mr Farage told […]

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