Tax Freedom Day Is The Day Each Year When You Finish Working For The Government

Jeremy Hetherington-Gore, Tax-news.com, London

10 March 2000

March 21st is UK's budget day, and when the Chancellor sits down people in highly-taxed Britain will be able to see how much tax they really pay by calling up a new website, taxfreedomday.co.uk. The site, developed by Britain's influential Adam Smith Institute, will calculate how many days deep into the year taxpayers have to work before they can say that they have worked off all the demands of the Treasury and are at last starting to earn for themselves.

With about 40% of Britain's national income being eaten up by taxation, the date is likely to fall in late May. In 1999, Tax Freedom Day fell on 27 May, meaning that for nearly five months of the year, the whole effort of British earners was devoted to supporting the government. The site will chart the history of Tax Freedom Day, which shows that the tax burden in Britain was at its highest in the mid-1980s, when Mrs Thatcher was desperately trying to balance the books, and Tax Freedom Day fell in June. But back in the mid-1960s, Brits had worked off their tax burden before the end of April.

The site will also show how the tax burden is even higher in other European countries. Taxpayers in the Euro zone have to work nearly another month to finance the demands of their governments. The EU booby prize goes to Denmark, whose citizens are working for the government until the end of July!

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