Why a detailed tax statement is a fantastic idea

Recently there has been a suggestion that Chancellor George Osborne intends to unveil plans in Wednesdays’ budget to provide every taxpayer with an annual statement revealing exactly how much tax they pay to the state and where it is spent. This strikes me as a fantastic idea.

One of the largest conflicts within public life is the balance between desire to buy into the notion of welfarism and the individualistic instinct to prioritise yourself and your family; To bisque in the right to exercise economic freedom over ones hard earned income. What I believe  this detailed statement will do is provide a reality check to those who call for ever more public spending, who do so with little thought for what this means in practice.

The truth is it is very easy to advocate more social spending and to complain about the status quo. To deliver social improvement usually requires more public spending. Where this romanticised spending comes from is the pockets of tax payers-and usually those who are struggling themselves under the demands of an unreasonable tax system. What articles in The Telegraph and The Daily Mail highlight for me is the extent to which ordinary earners are asked to delve into their own pockets to deliver these misguided ideals.

Those who earn in excess of £25,000- by no means anything more than a modest salary, are substantially burdened by high tax demands. The Telegraph reveals that those earning £50,000 pay a massive £15,000 in tax, leaving them with around £35,000, not much more spending power than those who earn a salary half of this. What this represents is the injustice and the disproportionate approach that the political system takes in this country to taxation of our wide-ranging ‘Middle England’. Those at the lower end and upper end are faced with very distinct levels of taxation, despite both being relatively in the same boat. This is very unfair on hard workers on the upper end whom, due to current taxation policy, cannot experience the just benefits of a higher salary that those at the lower end. There comes a point where ‘progressive’ taxation becomes unjust and furthermore, provides an attack on the wrong people.

What the tax statement will help to bring is a sense of reality to notions for greater public spending. It will provide a poignant and tangible link between social ideals and how they impact on their own tax bill, which I expect, will shift the public debate away from resistance to public spending cuts and reignite the country’s realisation that there is no alternative to spending cuts- in spite of however painful they feel, in order to achieve meritocratic justice and economic stability, as was the case going into the election in 2010. It is also my hope that this increased transparency will provoke irresistible demand for overdue tax reform in Britain.