I wonder if any readers felt a little better on Sunday?  A little brighter and happier?  Sunday May 30 was ‘tax freedom day’, a concept used by a number of bodies to indicate how much of our nation’s income is taken in taxes by the Government.

If you look at how much the nation earns and how much the Government takes and imagine that all tax is taken at the start of the year, then from 1 January to May 29 everything is taken in taxes and from May 30 onwards, we keep everything. Hence ‘tax freedom day’.  Last year tax freedom day came on May 27, showing that the Government is taking more in tax from us than last year.

It’s an interesting measure and, of course, we all know it’s going to get worse.  The Government is currently borrowing a lot of money and this is, effectively, deferred taxation since the borrowing will have to be paid back one day.  It has been calculated that if there were no borrowings this year and everything the Government spent was paid for in taxes, then tax freedom day would not come until……8 July.  Ouch!

Readers may know that the next budget is on 22 June and if the last budget was rather a quiet one, we can be sure that the one coming is going to be very interesting indeed.  Anyone interested in moving their own personal ‘tax freedom day’ to nearer January 1 is welcome to contact us to see what we can do.