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Taxes and benefits

Our work analyses impacts on inequality, poverty, the public finances, and the behaviour of workers, firms and consumers, and considers how their design could be improved. Its focus ranges from the taxation of sugary drinks to revenue-raising measures in low and middle income countries to ongoing UK benefit reforms.

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Taxes and benefits

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Will local control of council tax benefits work?

Report

In October last year, the government announced a significant change to its plan to localise Council Tax Benefit starting in April 2013. Why was such a significant change announced to a policy two years after it was first announced and less than six months before councils will have to implement it?

5 February 2013

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The Effects of the Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill

Comment

The Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill proposes to cap the annual increases in most working-age benefits at 1% in cash terms in 2014-15 and 2015-16, in addition to the 1% cap on increases already confirmed for 2013-14. This observation examines the effects of this proposal on incomes and work incentives, and puts this in the broader context of trends during the recession and subsequent fiscal tightening

7 January 2013

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Withdrawal symptoms: the new 'High Income Child Benefit charge'

Comment

On Monday, Child Benefit will effectively become an income-related benefit for the first time. This observation reviews the key features of this new policy, highlights unaddressed issues regarding its operation in the long run, and considers how it will fit into the wider welfare system.

4 January 2013

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Taxes and labour supply

Presentation

Slides and Audio from the presentation given at the IFS Public Economics Lecture series, December 2012

17 December 2012

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The UK tax system

Presentation

Slides and Audio from the presentation given at the IFS Public Economics Lecture series, December 2012

17 December 2012

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A defining issue? The government’s pledge to raise the share of revenue from green taxes

Comment

The government has committed itself to raising the share of revenues from green taxes over this Parliament. On its own definition of what constitutes a ‘green tax’, the pledge is on course to be met with ease. Alternative definitions of green taxes based on international convention, however, suggest that the pledge will be missed. We argue that such pledges are not a good guide to a government’s environmental credentials, and green tax policy should be justified by environmental issues rather than an arbitrary revenue target.

10 December 2012

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70th anniversary of the Beveridge report: where now for welfare?

Comment

Last week marked the 70th anniversary of the Beveridge report. Today’s social security system bears almost no resemblance to the one he envisaged. His ambition for a system of social insurance in which benefits would be paid in return for contributions to those experiencing unemployment, sickness or old age did not prove robust to changes in the economy, in demography and in the labour market. Other benefits, especially means-tested benefits, have been layered on top of the original social insurance benefits to create a system which is too complex and, at times, incoherent.

3 December 2012