Mark Littlewood, IEA Director General, has written for The Times on accusations that the Chancellor’s Spring statement has done little to make the UK’s tax system more progressive.

Mark argues that these criticisms are unfounded, pointing out that, “income tax in the UK is progressive. If, all other things being equal, you earn £100,000 per annum, not only will you be paying more income tax than someone earning £50,000, you will be handing over a higher proportion of your income — indeed, more than twice as much.”

Mark adds that, instead of focussing on how progressive our tax system is, discontents should be directed towards our funding of welfare.

“The total amount we spend on welfare every year is comfortably in excess of £200 billion. As there are fewer than 20 million families in the UK, this amounts to state payments in excess of £10,000 per family. Given that the vast bulk of people do not need welfare support to make ends meets, this surely should be a more than adequate budget to wholly eradicate poverty in Britain.”

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