Taxes Could Be Cut Within Broader Reforms

5th November 2023

Helen Miller is Deputy Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and Head of the Tax sector and she has written an article in the Telegraph on taxes.

"The Chancellor doesn't need to wait for fiscal headroom to reform public finances" says Helen Miller in The Telegraph.

The Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, is under growing pressure to cut taxes, if not in the upcoming Autumn Statement then in the Budget next spring. The Conservatives have presided over a record increase in the overall tax take. MPs will be looking for a pre-election tax cut that they can talk about on door steps. Recent reports suggest that they would favour cuts to stamp duty, inheritance tax or income tax.

But for now, the Chancellor has said that it will be "virtually impossible" to deliver tax cuts until the economic outlook improves.

It is true that poor economic growth, high debt and borrowing costs, and growing spending pressures are combining to make the public finances very challenging. Fiscal headroom - effectively the amount by which government can increase spending or cut taxes without breaking their fiscal rules - is low. Chancellor Hunt is therefore right that now is not the time to be making overall tax cuts, unless they are accompanied by spending cuts.

But that doesn't mean individual taxes can't be cut.

Read the full article HERE