Research, commentary and more | Institute for Fiscal Studies

Talk of a ‘doom loop’ in the public finances is for very good reasons

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"Wishful thinking will not keep us out of a debt-interest-fuelled doom loop. Only hard choices will do that." Paul Johnson writes in The Times.

5 December 2023

Behind the numbers: reassessing investment in skills and training

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"There are concrete steps, such as reforming the Apprenticeship Levy, that the government should take to improve the existing skills system."

12 October 2023

Personal taxes are rising, despite NICs cut

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National Insurance contributions are being cut in 2024. But personal taxes are still rising overall due to freeze to income tax thresholds.

5 January 2024

Annual report on education spending in England: 2023

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Our sixth annual report on education spending shows changes over time across different stages of education, as well as geographic differences.

11 December 2023

Taxes will probably be increased; they must be improved

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Pick a tax, any tax. That tax almost certainly needs serious reform.

24 August 2023

Is there really an NHS productivity crisis?

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It is difficult to measure NHS productivity. But the available evidence strongly suggests that the NHS is less productive now than pre-pandemic.

17 November 2023

Halving inheritance tax would give away an average of £180,000 to the top 5% of estates at death

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It is rumoured the Chancellor will halve inheritance tax in next week’s Autumn Statement. Four-fifths of the cut would go to estates worth over £1m.

18 November 2023

This will be the biggest tax-raising parliament on record

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This has been the biggest tax-raising parliament since records began, pushing UK tax revenues to historically high levels.

29 September 2023

Reforming inheritance tax

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We set out issues with the inheritance tax system and examine options for reform and the distributional impacts of reforming or abolishing the tax.

27 September 2023

A look under the hood of Labour’s investment plans

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Labour have promised £28 billion of green investment per year by the second half of the next parliament. £20 billion of this would be ‘additional’.

5 September 2023

British tax system is in need of reform

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"There are few corners of the British tax system that are not in urgent need of repair." Isaac Delestre writes for Taxation.

15 September 2023

Implications of the NHS workforce plan

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The NHS workforce plan aims for a large expansion in health service staffing. We examine the potential implications for NHS funding.

30 August 2023

Tax, private school fees and state school spending

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This report compares private school fees and state school spending. It also examines Labour’s proposals to remove tax exemptions from private schools.

11 July 2023

Housing quality and affordability for lower-income households

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We examine patterns of housing tenure, quality and affordability for people on lower incomes.

27 June 2023

A blueprint for a better tax treatment of pensions

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How should pensions be taxed? We propose income tax and National Insurance reforms that would more evenly support pension saving.

6 February 2023

Death and taxes and pensions

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The tax system treats funds that remain in a pension at death extremely favourably.

15 December 2022

Public spending, pay and pensions

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The public sector pay settlements announced this July will pose severe budgetary challenges for many areas of government.

8 October 2022

Why we need to reform inheritance tax

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We discuss the issues with inheritance tax and how to reform it.

6 December 2023

NHS waiting lists

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Read our analysis on NHS waiting lists.

20 September 2022

The triple lock: uncertainty for pension incomes and the public finances

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The pensions triple lock has increased state pension spending and creates uncertainty for current and future generations of pensioners.

8 September 2023

How much public spending does each area receive? Local authority level estimates of health, police, school and local government spending

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How much funding does each area of England receive for key public services, and is this funding allocated in line with patterns of needs?

15 August 2023

The economic, fiscal and funding outlook

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In this presentation to the LGA Finance Conference, IFS researchers look at the economic, fiscal and funding outlook for English councils.

15 January 2024

Taxing work and investment across legal forms: pathways to well-designed taxes

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The parts of the UK tax system that dictate how different forms of income are taxed are of central importance and are not fit for purpose.

26 January 2021

CIOT/IFS online debate: How should non-doms be taxed?

event 29 November 2023 at 10:00

Non-doms are entitled to claim the ‘remittance basis’ of taxation. What are the problems with how non-doms are currently taxed?

Rewriting the fiscal rules

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The Chancellor was right to suspend the current set of fiscal targets during the pandemic, and he is also right to take time to consider what a good set of post-pandemic targets will be.

12 October 2021

Policy risks to the fiscal outlook

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Pressures on both revenue and spending are skewed to add to borrowing over the next few years, and threaten the ‘centrality’ of official forecasts.

17 October 2023

Chancellors’ responses to economic news

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Chancellors don’t respond symmetrically to good and bad economic news. This represents a risk to the accuracy of official borrowing forecasts.

28 September 2023

Public sector net worth as a fiscal target

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We consider the case for and against a fiscal target for public sector net worth.

7 October 2023

The policy menu for school lunches: options and trade-offs in expanding free school meals in England

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The expansion of free school meals has been frequently discussed. IFS researchers consider the costs and benefits of different options.

29 March 2023

Why has in-work poverty risen in Britain?

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Our new research examines the reason for the increased in-work relative poverty rate in Britain over the last 25 years, which has risen by almost 5 percentage points from 13% to 18%.

7 June 2019