The IFS's Tax Law Review Committee calls for 'joined-up' review of law on employment status in response to a review by the DTI.

Since 1975 governments in the UK have increased the amount they pay parents to bring upa child by almost 150 per cent, after adjusting for inflation, according to a report by IFS researchers published today. More than half this increase reflects tax and benefit changes since 1999.

Five articles published in Fiscal studies cover the following topics: The Economic Costs and Benefits of UK Defence Exports; Targeting Fuel Poverty in England: Is the Government Getting Warm?; Trends in British Public Investment; The Croatian Profit Tax: An ACE in Practice; Simplifying the Personal Income Tax System: Lessons from the 1998 Spanish Reform.

New IFS research examines individuals choice between saving in a pension, saving in other vehicles and not saving at all. The research finds that: In the long-run pension tax relief is more generous than that available on Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) for most feasible cases; For many individuals the tax system provides an incentive to save in an ISA before drip-feeding their funds into a private pension in the run-up to retirement; Individuals who prefer to have access to their funds will find saving in an ISA relatively more attractive especially when dividends are high.

In research published today, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, the IFS has looked at how inflation rates vary across the household population. The work finds that inflation rates do vary widely across different households. The headline rate of inflation is not necessarily a good guide to the actual rates of inflation experienced by individual households.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has announced that Robert Chote is to be its new Director. He will take over in the Autumn following the departure of Andrew Dilnot.

A new report from the IFS examines whether there is a case for abolishing stamp duty on share transactions.

New work by the Institute for Fiscal Studies reveals that since 1997, reforms to social security have redistributed to the poor, pensioners and children, increased means-tested payments and weakened the link between National Insurance and benefit entitlements.

Government figures released today show that, in 2000/1, 3.9 million children were in poverty, a fall of 0.5 million since the last year of the Conservative government. These new figures include, for the first time, the effects of crucial reforms like the working families' tax credit. But the fall in child poverty seems to leave the Government short of its claims that its reforms had "lifted 1.2 million children out of relative income poverty".

A new IFS book published today, Monday 25th March, reveals that mothers still face substantial hurdles in undertaking paid employment. For those who do manage to work, childcare arrangements are a diverse mixture of carers, cost and quality. Government initiatives to increase the availability of childcare places have a substantial shortfall to address while measures to increase the \"affordability\" of care, such as the Working Families Tax Credit, may have limited impact on the work choices of mothers.