Briefing notes
We produce short briefing notes on current policy issues, drawing on our expertise and research findings.
Briefing note
Soft drink taxes have been implemented in 50 jurisdictions (as of August 2019). We review the evidence on their effects, summarising 27 studies of taxes in 11 jurisdictions.
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This Wednesday the Chancellor will allocate funding to departments for the next financial year, 2020-2021. This departmental spending (DEL) is £375 billion this year.
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The richest members of our society get a lot of attention. Much of the public conversation about economic inequality is concerned with, loosely, the top 1%, how different they are from the rest, how they got to where they are, and what – if anything – policy should do about it. This briefing ...
Briefing note
This briefing note discusses the consequences of Jeremy Hunt's tax and spending policies, including reducing corporation tax, increasing the point at which workers become liable for National Insurance (NICs) contributions, increasing defence spending, and reducing the interest rate applied to ...
Briefing note
This briefing note discusses the consequences of Boris Johnson's tax policies, which age groups gain, and what the impact might be on the number of people that pay higher rate tax or NICs.
Briefing note
Current plans for councils to rely on council tax and business rates for the vast bulk of their funding don’t look compatible with our expectations of what councils should provide. A proper national debate on how much we are willing to pay and what we expect of councils is needed.
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The tax and benefit system is a key tool for a government trying to reduce inequality. In this briefing note, we examine the effects that cash benefits and taxes had on UK inequality in 2016–17.
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This report introduces the IFS Deaton Review, setting out some key background facts, questions and puzzles that will be addressed over the next five years.
Briefing note
In this research we investigate who wins and loses from universal credit, and by how much. For the first time, we also look at the effects of universal credit on people’s incomes over eight years of their lives, rather than just at a point in time. This lets us look at the impact on those that ...
Briefing note
This Saturday (6 April 2019) marks the start of a new tax year. Unlike many other countries, the UK routinely – and sensibly – uprates the cash values of most tax thresholds and benefit rates each year in line with inflation, in order to maintain their real value.