This commentary looks at the impact of taxing child benefit under a number of scenarios. This involves analysis of the amount of revenue raised, the distributional impact of using this revenue to increase the rate of child benefit and the administrative issues encountered under particular tax treatments. In addition, the commentary examines the implications of taxing child benefit for the future direction of tax system reform.
This commentary assesses the impact of capping on local service provision. In particular it addresses the following questions. What factors determine desired local spending? Did capping constrain spending by local councils? Which local services bore the brunt of any cuts? Did the quality of local services suffer as a result?
This commentary asks whether a productivity gap is really the problem facing Britain. Do lower levels of output per worker suggest greater inefficiency or do they reflect differences in levels of inputs? Historically low levels of investment suggest that our stock of R&D, physical and human capital may be lower than it is in the other main industrialised countries.
This Commentary looks at public pay in detail, tracing its trend relative to the private sector over the 1980s and 1990s and showing how the gap in pay between the public and private sectors differs dramatically across occupations, gender and education groups. These findings illustrate how misleading comparisons of public and private sector pay based on aggregate data can be.
The first half of the report sheds some new light on the following questions with a detailed and consistent comparison of income distributions in Western Germany and the UK from 1984 to 1992. To what extent was the income distribution in Western Germany similar to the UK in 1984? Did the inequality of West German incomes rise to the same extent? What was the differing role of the labour market, the tax and benefit system and demographic change in each country? The second half of the report concentrates on whether and how education, training and wage setting systems together with other institutional factors in Western Germany can explain the differences relative to the more deregulated UK labour market.
This report provides a response to the government's proposals. Is the current local government system likely to discourage "over-spending" by councils in the absence of capping powers? Will the government's proposals make the link between local spending decisions and Council Tax bills clearer to voters? Can measures to encourage councils to respond to the views of their residents be successful in making councils more accountable to local people?.
In this commentary, the authors examine public support for more local decision making and increased freedom for local councils to raise council tax levels. They also assess whether local voters would support higher spending on local services such as schools, housing and the police if they had to pay for it directly through higher council tax bills.
As the government nears the end of a consultation process on charity taxation, this commentary considers some of the key issues in the debate. What are the economic arguments for tax relief? Is there any evidence that tax incentives have a big effect on individual donations? What has been the impact of tax incentives in the UK? What are so-called `US-style tax deductions and how might they work in the UK? What other reforms to the current system of tax relief might the government consider?
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 report addresses whether current UK methods of dealing with avoidance are adequate and satisfactory and what, if any, other measures might be taken. Should current judicial anti-avoidance doctrines be allowed to develop or should Parliament take the initiative with a general anti-avoidance rule?
As the Government considers what form the ISA should take, this Commentary documents the current state of savings and, in particular, the current tax treatment of savings. In the light of the experience of TESSAs and PEPS, we also consider several key features that the new Individual Savings Account might have.
This report looks at how corporate income taxes have changed over the past two decades, what incentives they provide for domestic and international investment, and whether changes in the international economy have helped shape these reforms.
This report shows the extent to which low pay and unemployment are related, the effects of periods out of work on future earnings and the degree to which low pay is a persistent phenomenon. Importantly it demonstrates the way in which a minimum wage might affect a much higher proportion of the population than is generally appreciated because of the way in which people move in and out of low paid work. A chapter of the report is also given over to the effects of work experience and job tenure on pay levels.
