Helen Miller

In a bid to become the next prime minister, both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt say they plan to increase the point at which people start paying National Insurance Contributions (NICs). This move would make the UK’s tax system even more different to those in most other developed countries in two ways.

Poor tax design creates inefficiency and unfairness but it is possible to correct the flaws

Tax is just one policy lever among many others, yet our tax system affects the UK’s industrial structure in many ways. We should give consideration to these effects when designing tax policy. When we deviate from tax neutrality to steer the industrial structure, three questions need to be addressed. Is there a good reason to change a market outcome? Is tax the right tool? And can we design tax solutions where benefits outweigh costs? Removing current distortions from our tax policy is often much more sensible than layering another distortion on top.

This presentation was given at the second of the IFS 50th anniversary event series on 3 April 2019.

This presentation was given at an IFS briefing following the Autumn Budget Statement 2018.

The fact that employees have workplace rights that the self-employed do not cannot be used to justify higher taxes on them, says Helen Miller.

This presentation was given by Helen Miller at the IFS Residential Conference on 14 September 2018.

There is a current debate about whether the definition of self-employment should be aligned across tax and employment law. At present there is a rather complex situation – illustrated by a recent court case involving Pimlico Plumbers – in which an individual can be deemed a worker in employment law but self-employed in tax law. The definitions matter because they determine who gets access to employment rights and who gets preferential tax treatment.

Tax records show that people working for their own business have much lower profits and are investing less than before the recession.