 Facts and figures about UK taxes, benefits and public spending.
Analysing government fiscal forecasts and tax and spending.
Case studies that give a flavour of the areas where IFS research has an impact on society.
Reforming the tax system for the 21st century.
A peer-reviewed quarterly journal publishing articles by academics and practitioners.
Find out where you are in the income distribution.
Resources for schools and students.
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Since its foundation in the 1960s, the IFS has been studying developments in the UK's tax and social security system. This continues to be a core part of the Institute's work, making a particularly important contribution to public debate around the government's annual set pieces of the Budget and Pre-Budget Report, and the Institute's own Green Budget. Research at the IFS concentrates on describing and analysing changes and proposed changes to the tax and social security system, and in using large cross-sectional household datasets to model the impact of reforms on individuals' incomes and behaviour. Below, we present specific projects that researchers at the IFS have worked on in recent years, although the constant need to maintain the Institute's tax and benefit model means that IFS researchers are familiar with almost all areas of personal tax and social security in the UK.
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Mike Brewer, Tom Clark and Matthew Wakefield
This paper argues that after five years of the current Labour government, consistent trends in social security policy have emerged
Alissa Goodman and Howard Reed
Gordon Brown's sixth budget,and his first of the new parliament, combines rises in the overall tax burden that fall mainly on the better-off with a substantial increase in generosity of support for families with children - both working and non-working.
Michal Myck
In this second article about the New Deal, Michal Myck, Research Economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies looks in more detail at the impact of a particular programme.
The �Swedish model� of active labour market programmes is investigated in relation to some crucial institutional features with two aims: examining how successful it has been in the context of the high unemployment atypically experienced by Sweden in the 1990s and trying to derive some general lessons as to which type of programme works best.
Michal Myck
In the first of two articles looking at the Government’s role in the UK labour market, Michal Myck, of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, explores the rationale for the New Deal.
This paper investigates how effective the Swedish labour market programmes have been in improving the opportunities of unemployed individuals over the last decade.
The paper evaluates the differential performance of the six main types of Swedish programmes that were available to adult unemployed workers enTitled to unemployment benefits in the 1990s: labour market training, workplace introduction, work experience placement, relief work, trainee replacement and employment subsidies.
Browse publications & research
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 Started: 11 April 2011
Started: 01 November 2010
Started: 28 September 2010
Started: 17 March 2010
Started: 01 November 2009
  In light of Government objectives to increase environmental taxation, we investigate whether the UK tax system is becoming more or less ‘green’.
The IFS has made valuable contributions to the debate on VAT and its impact on the poor.
The IFS played a key role in the debate about who the tax and benefit changes in recent ‘Emergency Budget’ hit hardest.
Changes to the benefit system recommended by IFS researchers have made working less than 16 hours a week more attractive to benefit recipients.
The IFS played a key role in informing the public during the 2010 election campaign. Our comments on the parties’ tax plans were quoted by the party leaders in their debates.
The Mirrlees Review shows the importance IFS attaches to high quality empirical evidence in the design of tax and benefit system.
Our ERA analysis contributed to the evaluation literature and informed the Government about the validity of the experimental findings.
IFS evaluated the Pathways to Work programme. This work proved key to the policy debate about how to get disability benefit claimants in work.
Proposals by IFS researchers to simplify the benefit system and strengthen the incentives for low-skilled adults to work have attracted the attention of Iain Duncan Smith, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
IFS researchers found that the In-Work Credit encouraged lone parents to leave benefit more quickly but did not increase work retention.
An IFS economist advised a “Citizens Jury” on the welfare system, including basic facts and important issues about its purpose and structure.
IFS researchers develop a model of the Mexican tax system that will be used by the Mexican Government analysts.
IFS researchers and the World Bank plan to develop capacity and tools in developing countries for the comprehensive analysis of tax reforms
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