Presentation given at the Health Economics Research Unit, University of Aberdeen, 12 March 2013

Last week the Prime Minister David Cameron told MPs that he was determined to “deal with” the “problem of deeply discounted alcohol in supermarkets and other stores” and said that the Government was considering the results of a consultation into a proposed minimum unit price for alcohol. In this observation, IFS researchers consider the merits of such a policy and argue that taxing alcoholic drinks on the basis of their alcohol content, with higher tax rates on stronger than weaker drinks, would be more effective at targeting those drinking above recommended levels than would a minimum alcohol price.

This briefing note considers the effectiveness of the proposed minimum unit price of alcohol.

Paper given at the Cardiff Business School, Wednesday 30th January 2013

The government has committed itself to raising the share of revenues from green taxes over this Parliament. On its own definition of what constitutes a ‘green tax’, the pledge is on course to be met with ease. Alternative definitions of green taxes based on international convention, however, suggest that the pledge will be missed. We argue that such pledges are not a good guide to a government’s environmental credentials, and green tax policy should be justified by environmental issues rather than an arbitrary revenue target.

This article discusses the current system of motoring taxes in teh UK and recommends a move towards a system of road pricing.

Paper given at the Energy and Environmental Taxation Workshop, Deusto University on 25th September 2012.

New IFS research published today demonstrates the compelling case for road pricing as part of a radical overhaul of the way in which motoring is taxed. Current taxes - excise duties on road fuel and vehicle excise duty - are unable to capture the substantial variation by time and location in the external costs associated with motoring. At the same time, official forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility suggest revenues from these current taxes are set to erode significantly in the medium-term. Road pricing would provide not only a more economically rational way of taxing motoring but also a more sustainable tax base.

This report looks at the options for taxing motoring, concluding that a system of road pricing or congestion charging would be preferable to the current system.

This presentation was given at the 2012 Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS UK) Road User Charging Conference held in London on 23rd February 2012.

This full report consists of 11 chapters covering areas including: VAT exemptions and their economic effects; reduced and zero rates and their distributional, welfare and behavioural consequences; administration and compliance costs; VAT fraud; the operation of VAT in a cross-border context; the impact of the EU VAT system on cross-border trade flows; and, the impact of VAT on GDP, consumption and labour markets.

This document contains formal answers to the evaluation questions posed by the Commission.

The Executive Summary contains the main findings of the full report.

Dimensions of Tax Design brings together a high-profile group of more than fifty international experts and younger researchers.

This paper evaluates the effect of excise taxes and bans on smoking in public places on the exposure to tobacco smoke of non-smokers.

This presentation was given at the 2009 meeting of the National Tax Association in Denver, Colorado, 12-14 November 2009.

This talk was given at a special session, organized by the IMF, at the National Tax Association Annual Meetings in Denver on 12 November 2009.

This presentation was given on November 11th 2009, at the National Tax Association Annual Meetings.

This talk was given at a Finance seminar at the University of Cambridge on 30 October 2009.

We analyse the use of taxes and regulation in combination, to control externalities arising from individual consumption behaviour.

This issue of Fiscal Studies contains a symposium on the economics of the likely effects of the temporary VAT cut that is in place until the end of 2009.

This paper concerns the likely impact of a temporary VAT cut stimulus policy on consumer demand in the UK.

This paper analyses the likely implications of the temporary cut in VAT in the UK to 15 per cent, with a return to 17.5 per cent in place for the end of 2009.

This presentation was given at the launch of the IFS Green Budget 2009.

We look at the impact the government's cut in the VAT rate could have on people's spending.

Abolishing zero and reduced rates of VAT would cut compliance and administration costs for business and government, interfere less with people's spending decisions, and raise enough revenue both to improve the living standards of poorer families and to cut other taxes by £11 billion, according to a study commissioned by the Mirrlees Review of the UK tax system, which is being chaired by Nobel prize-winner Professor Sir James Mirrlees for the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

This draft paper forms part of the Mirrlees Review and was presented at the IFS Residential Conference 2007.

This Briefing Note looks at the potential for the introduction of a 'fat tax' into the UK in an effort to reduce the growing prevalence of obesity in Britain. This Briefing Note looks at trends in UK obesity and examines evidence on eating habits and exercise in order to see whether trends here can account for what we see happening to obesity. We go on to review some of the key economic reasons behind why we might be concerned about obesity and why we might consider there to be a case for government intervention. We also discuss how food is currently taxed and the various ways in which a 'fat tax' might be introduced, looking at particular issues the government might need to address should it wish to introduce one. We finish by presenting some simple analysis of a hypothetical 'fat tax' in terms of how it might impact differently on the rich and the poor.

In this briefing note, we look at the arguments for and against a fuel tax.

In this Commentary, the authors look at the likely effects that real year-by-year increases in road fuel duties will have on the use of cars by households and on their economic welfare, with particular attention to the distributional consequences.

This commentary concentrates on the particular issues raised by environmental taxation, in the form of the additional tax burden and its distribution accross households.

This commentary assembles some initial evidence about a number of possible options for environmental taxation, setting out the costs and benefits of different policy options, and their likely effects.