 Facts and figures about UK taxes, benefits and public spending.
Analysing government fiscal forecasts and tax and spending.
Find out where you are in the income distribution.
ESRC Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy.
Reforming the tax system for the 21st century.
A peer-reviewed quarterly journal publishing articles by academics and practitioners.
Resources for schools and students.
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IFS researchers conduct on-going analysis of the public finances and the outlook for public spending. Our work in this area looks at forecasts of government revenues and spending (overall and on specific areas) and aims to inform public debate around Budgets, Pre-Budget Reports and Spending Reviews.
The financial crisis and the economic damage associated with it opened up a structural hole in the public finances that, if left unaddressed, would be impervious to the economic recovery and would put public sector debt on an unsustainable path. The coalition Government faces a significant challenge to restore the public finances to better health. The government is aiming to implement a repair job that will meet two fiscal targets by the end of its forecast horizon: a balanced structural current budget and debt falling as share of national income. Analysis by IFS researchers of the public finances monitors the government's performance and plans with reference to these targets, and describes the extent to which the Government is choosing to deliver this fiscal repair job through increases in tax or cuts to public spending. Part of our dissemination on these topics involves writing articles for a variety of non-specialist publications, such as The Times, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, BBC News Online and Public Finance Magazine. A full listing of news articles authored by IFS researchers can be found in our press section. IFS researchers also carry out monthly analysis of the public finance figures published by the Office for National Statistics: these analyses are distributed as press notices and can also be found in our press section. Our Budgets section provides details of our analysis of Budgets, Pre-Budget Reports and Spending Reviews and other related analyses. Our annual Green Budget contains our forecasts for the public finances and also provides an in-depth discussion of other issues relating to the public finances, public spending and taxation. Search
In this Briefing Note, we attempt to model the full impact of tax and benefit changes in the Budget, including additional benefit cuts, on different income and expenditure groups.
The following note contains a description and explanation of how the IFS has examined the impact on receipts of income tax and national insurance, and on spending on benefits and tax credits, if employers increased wages to a "living wage".
Last week the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Vince Cable, suggested a graduate tax as a 'fairer' replacement for tuition fees in higher education. All the Labour leadership candidates - with the exception of David Miliband - have expressed support for this idea, as has the National Union of Students; the leading universities, meanwhile, have opposed it. This Observation examines whether the rationale for such a policy and the practical implications of it have been fully considered.
The Coalition agreement reiterated the Conservative's manifesto pledge to "increase the proportion of tax revenue accounted for by environmental taxes". Past experience suggests that this is easier said than done: environmental taxes fell sharply as a share of total receipts during the Labour Government's period in office despite a similar ambition to shift taxes from 'goods' to 'bads'. Unless the Coalition announces new increases in environmental taxes, the latest forecasts show they are unlikely to meet their pledge either.
The Budget revealed for the first time the scale of the austerity ahead - and it amounts to the longest and deepest period of public spending cuts since the Second World War.
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 Started: 15 March 2010
Started: 01 December 2009
Started: 18 November 2009
Started: 09 November 2009
Started: 01 April 2006
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 The IFS hosts an ESRC research centre. |
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