Fiscal Facts contains facts and figures about UK taxes, benefits, and the public finances. For information about average incomes, poverty and inequality, see Incomes in the UK.

• This briefing note describes the UK tax system.

• This briefing note describes the UK system of benefits and tax credits.

• The tax and benefit tables give current and historical rates and thresholds for the main direct and indirect taxes; and benefit and tax credit rates, numbers of claimants and expenditure levels.
• This table shows tax measures introduced in each Budget, pre-Budget Report, Spending Review and Autumn Statement since 1979.

• We give public finance information for the UK and some comparative figures for OECD countries. Briefing notes in this section survey public spending in the UK and local government spending.

This work is funded by the ESRC Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy at IFS. Any comments on these pages should be directed to the contacts named on the right.