National Insurance contributions

This presentation was given by Stuart Adam at the 2019 General Election manifesto analysis briefing.

This presentation was given by Robert Joyce at the 2019 General Election manifesto analysis briefing.

Boris Johnson has announced that he would raise the threshold for paying National Insurance contributions (NICs) on earnings to £9,500 in the first Budget of a Conservative government. Currently 12% NICs is payable on earnings over £8,632 per year, set to rise with inflation to £8,788 in 2020–21.

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.

Paying benefits to people of working age is a big part of what the government does.In fact, it spends more on these benefits than it does on education or national defence and policing. They account for roughly £1 in every £8 the government spends, or about £100bn a year. This is on top of the £120bn that is spent on benefits for pensioners. A look at the size of the bill and who gets these benefits reveals big changes over time.

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

This presentation was given by David Phillips at the CIOT/IFS debate, "Tax devolution - a help or hindrance to the UK's cities, regions and nations?", on 22 October 2018.

This was the introductory section at the launch of the IFS Green Budget 2018.

This presentation considers where the Chancellor might look if he wanted to increase tax receipts by about 1% of national income – enough to pay for the promised increase in NHS spending.

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.

40% of the growth in the UK’s workforce since 2008 has come from people working for their own business. IFS researchers are using administrative tax records to learn more about the self-employed and company owner-managers, including their characteristics, how these groups have been changing in recent years and how they respond to the tax system.

40% of the growth in the UK’s workforce since 2008 has come from people working for their own business. IFS researchers are using administrative tax records to learn more about the self-employed and company owner-managers, including their characteristics, how these groups have been changing in recent years and how they respond to the tax system.

40% of the growth in the UK’s workforce since 2008 has come from people working for their own business. IFS researchers are using administrative tax records to learn more about the self-employed and company owner-managers, including their characteristics, how these groups have been changing in recent years and how they respond to the tax system.

This article by Paul Johnson, published in the Times Newspaper, looks at the issue of hypothecating taxes for the NHS.