Posts in "Policy"
CGT over time - the chart looks like someone having a heart attaack
Jun 18, 2026 Policy

The history of UK capital gains tax in five charts

This article looks at the history of UK capital gains tax, and how revenues have changed when the rate and rules changed. There’s a separate article on reforming CGT here. The chart at the top of this page shows what happens if you plot UK capital gains tax revenues as a % of GDP since […]
Who benefits from the VAT cut? Micro up to 9 employees Small £1,900m 10-49 employees £2,280m McDonald's £432m Mitchells & Butlers ee 248m aE Whitbread £238m Medium —— soo King 50-249 employees Ss Wetherspoon £1,470m Ps WS £194m Other larg 250+ employees £2,014m Compass KFC Stonegate Domino's Uber Eats fees Nando's Deliveroo fees Just Eat fees IHG hotels Greggs Marriott hotels Accor hotels @ Hilton hotels
Jun 12, 2026 Policy

The £12bn VAT cut for hospitality. Who really benefits?

The hospitality industry is lobbying for a VAT cut from 20% to 10%. The political case is simple and compelling: save pubs, restaurants, cafés and hotels; protect jobs; save high streets. The campaign says it’s self-funding and pro-growth. The reality is different. It’s a hugely expensive subsidy, likely costing more than £12bn a year. 45% […]
Telegraph headline: Chancellor’s stamp duty raid backfires as sales slump
Jun 9, 2026 Policy

Why do we still have stamp duty?

The Housing select committee has said stamp duty does economic damage and should be reformed. The Telegraph says the stamp duty increase last year “backfired”: transactions slumped, and receipts fell with them. I wish that was right, because there would then be an easy argument to reverse the increase, and even abolish the tax. But […]
A crowd of people
Jun 5, 2026 Policy

Has Britain run out of “other people” to tax?

British politics has spent a generation avoiding the same uncomfortable question: what if the government people want costs more than most voters are willing to pay? The answer, from Labour and the Conservatives alike, has been to tax “other people”. Higher earners. Banks. People with capital gains, second homes, large pensions, non-dom status, inherited wealth […]
Chart showing France has far more taxes than any other developed country; Germany has the least of any large country; the UK is in the middle
May 30, 2026 Policy

The UK has 90 different taxes. France has 348. Germany has 60. Why?

The UK has 90 different taxes – more than at any time since 1834. France, on the other hand, has 348. But Germany, which has overall levels of tax closer to France than the UK, has only 60. Why is that? And are there lessons for the UK? This is the third in a series. […]
A History of Tax
May 29, 2026 Policy

Why does Britain have more taxes than at any time since 1834?

Tax in the UK is the highest it’s been since 1945. That’s well understood – but another trend has been largely missed: the number of taxes in the UK is at its highest since the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Back then, the Government was fighting France and building the modern state. Afterwards, and over […]
Reform UK's overtime cut is bottom of the list of tax cuts, in "bang for the buck" terms
May 25, 2026 Policy

Ten better tax cuts than Reform’s £14bn overtime gimmick

Reform UK’s “hard work bonus” sounds simple: no income tax on overtime above a 40-hour week for workers earning under £75,000. But the likely result is modest extra output, massive relabelling of existing hours as “overtime”, and a bill far above Reform’s £5bn estimate. Our central estimate of the cost is £14bn. For that money […]
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Nov 12, 2025 Policy

The Budget 2025 tax calculator

This online calculator calculates your tax on employment, self-employed or partnership income, and shows how it changes under a variety of Budget proposals. It charts the marginal and effective tax rate at all income levels, and shows where you fall on that chart. Now updated for the actual Budget, with rates for 2026/27 rates and […]
= Qa HOME WORLD UK COMPANIES TECH MARKETS CLIMATE OPINION LEX WORK& CAREERS LIFE& ARTS HTS! PINANCIAL TIMES | subscribe TM FT Digital Edition Portfolio UK tax + AddtomyFT Rachel Reeves plans Budget tax raid on expensive homes UK chancellor predicted to plump for ‘least worst option’ of creating higher council tax bands in England
Nov 2, 2025 Policy

Council tax on ‘expensive homes’ – but most of the money comes from the not-so-rich

The FT has reported that Rachel Reeves is planning a “Budget tax raid on the owners of expensive homes”, expected to raise around £4bn. But less than a 20% of that revenue comes from homes in the top council tax band, while roughly 80% comes from the much larger group of homes in the second-highest […]

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