If [UK Government] spending since 1997 had risen no faster than inflation, we would be spending a third less than we do now, and could abolish income tax, VAT, and council tax entirely. - Eamonn Butler, writing in the Daily Telegraph on what I am relieved to discover the Adam Smith Institute has renamed Cost of Government Day....

New Years greetings from Parburypolitica especially for all you cash strapped billionaire's out there. Tax Freedom Day is an import from the US right which nominates a day in the tax year when they argue people stop working for the government and start working for themselves. The concept is rubbish because it doesn’t take into account what public services you gain for the taxe...

I am alerted to this piece in today's Telegraph by Dr Eamonn Butler of the Adam Smith Institute, who explains that today is "Cost of Government Day". Basically, he explains that for the last 176 days the average Briton has...

We now have confirmation that the Chancellor of the Exchequer is just guessing what he should do, he has admitted that his decision to increase the top rate of income tax from 40% to 50% was not based on any evidence or analysis but was a personal judgment. As the Director of the Adam Smith Institute, Eamonn Butler, points out in an article in The Times today, increasing rates of income tax, parti...

It’s often said that Adam Smith would turn in his grave if he knew what was argued in his name. The latest Adam Smith Institute attack on the Robin Hood Tax would certainly be enough to make his skeleton blush crimson.

Well, I suppose that there’s glory in being copied. The Adam Smith Insitute has for years been calculating Tax Freedom Day. The day when we start working for ourselves having paid off the exactions of the State. So the Fawcett Society is copying that idea over the gender pay gap. Today is the day when women

 The following graph from HM Treasury clearly shows that over the last ten years government spending and income have both risen together, due to economic growth and inflation. The increasing deficit (gap between income and expenditure) since 2007 has not been due to an increase in public spending, but due to a decrease in tax receipts

The Tax Research UK blog takes the Adam Smith Institute to task for claiming that ‘Tax Freedom Day’ is 2nd June: “In 2006 Grant Thornton calculated that the 54 billionaires in the UK paid tax at an average rate of 0.14%. For them tax freedom day arrives at about 12.15pm today. The message is clear:

Everyone knows that Flat Taxes are nasty regressive things associated with the Adam Smith Institute, the reactionary-capitalist-pig-dog-enemy-of-the-people Tim Worstall and  the ex-communist world. What most people don’t know is that a flat income tax is much more progressive than the income tax which we currently charge people, as I’ll show below.

The Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announces his plans for the coalition government to go "further and faster" in raising the pay level at which people start paying income tax to £10,000 a year.