FAMILIES will have to work an extra four days this year to pay off their soaring tax bill under Labour.
Analysis by the Adam Smith Institute has declared Saturday ‘Tax Freedom Day’ when the average worker has finally earned enough this year to pay their share of the nation’s tax bill.
The June 6 declaration is the latest ever made. Last year, Tax Freedom Day fell on June 2. Before the pandemic it was a full fortnight earlier.
The free market think tank warned that tax rises already baked in mean the date is now on course to slip to June 12 by the end of the decade.
The remorseless rise follows two ‘tax bomb’ Budgets from Rachel Reeves, which raised taxes by around £70 billion a year.
The Chancellor has refused to rule out further tax rises this autumn to keep to her ‘fiscal rules’ which are under renewed strain because of the war in Iran.
Would-be prime minister Andy Burnham has signalled support for even higher taxes as he pursues a more Left-wing agenda in the hope of reversing Labour’s poll collapse.
Shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride said the alarming rise highlighted the need to get taxes down.
Tax bombs: Rachel Reeves has raised taxes by £70 billion in less than two years
‘The tax burden is rising to historic highs with British taxpayers working longer and longer each year just to pay the taxman,’ he said.
‘The tax rises we have seen from this Labour government have damaged employment, business confidence and investment, while wasteful spending like the ballooning welfare bill is left unchecked. Increasingly for too many people in our country, it simply does not pay to work.
Reform UK’s Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick said: ‘Everyone is having to pay more and more because this Labour Government is wasting our money on benefits, net zero and silly schemes like foreign aid to rich countries. We should scrap the waste and use the money to lighten the load on working people by cutting their taxes.’
Tax Freedom Day is calculated by working out how long an average person would have to work to pay off their share of total taxation. It is designed to give an indication of the overall size of the state rather than a precise measurement for any one individual.
This year’s June 6 date is the latest on record, beating the previous high of June 3 in 1945 when Britain was carrying crippling war debts. As recently as 2009, the date fell on May 17 – three weeks earlier – highlighting the rapid growth in the size and cost of the state.
The Adam Smith Institute also calculates a ‘Cost of Government Day’, which factors in the cost of government borrowing as well as taxes. This year it falls on July 13, the latest date since the pandemic.
James Lawson, chairman of the think tank, said the worsening situation ‘should be a wake-up call to politicians that the tax burden has reached unsustainable levels’.
He added: ‘The UK is now taking a larger share of national income in tax than at any point in modern history, with taxpayers facing a heavier burden than during the Second World War or the economic crises of the 1970s. Even worse, once borrowing is included, Britons are effectively funding government spending until mid-July.
‘Ministers need to be honest about the scale of the tax burden and start reversing it. If Britain wants stronger growth, higher wages and rising living standards, the priority must be controlling spending, cutting taxes and allowing people to keep more of the money they earn.’
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers Alliance, said it was ‘shocking but not surprising’ that the date had slipped to the latest on record.
He added: ‘This dangerous government has squeezed the life out of businesses with national insurance hikes and launched an all-out assault on family firms, private schools and pensions.
‘It’s not just about funding more welfare spending; it’s an ideological attack on Brits who have the temerity to succeed and look after their families.
‘We have to cut spending drastically, but we must also cure a sickness in the political class that sees taxpayers and businesses as miscreants to be brought under state control through tax and regulation.’
