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Full steam ahead at TaxPayers' Alliance
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Once again the TaxPayers' Alliance has dominated the airwaves and filled column inches across the nation's press. We were featured in nearly every national newspaper this week. Coverage in local media was just as impressive - literally hundreds of local papers and radio stations reported TPA research. I'm delighted to say that tens of millions of people are hearing our message loud and clear!
Our campaigns are gathering more momentum every day. We will not relent in our mission to reform taxes and public services, eradicate wasteful spending and speak up for British taxpayers. But we couldn't do it without your continued support. Thank you!
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University Rich List 2020
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On Thursday the TaxPayers' Alliance published the latest edition of the ever popular University Rich List. Our research continues to lift the lid on bumper pay packets for staff at British universities. This year 4,112 employees were remunerated to the tune of more than £100,000 a year in 2019-20. That's an increase of 14 per cent from the last year!
How can it be fair to taxpayers that university vice chancellors demanded a £2 billion government bailout in the Spring yet are happy to splash the cash on six-figure salaries?
Perhaps most interestingly of all there's no correlation between the number of highly paid staff at a university and it achieving excellent student satisfaction rates. This begs the question are universities’ value for money?
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Our findings were reported far and wide in The Times, Daily Telegraph, The Sun, The Yorkshire Post, as well as countless local newspapers and radio stations.
Universities are funded by both taxpayers and students directly. Many will be left with more than a degree of uncertainty over whether this is money well spent. Instead of blaming covid, uni bosses need to get these steep salaries under control and focus on providing students with the very best higher education possible.
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TaxPayers' Alliance in the news
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Taxpayers deserve fairer deal from BBC
Government ministers have started negotiations with BBC bosses about the future cost of the much-hated licence fee. Talks are likely to go on for many months but the TPA wasted no time in calling for a fairer deal for taxpayers. In comments picked up by the national press, we told the Beeb it must keep costs down and protect households from yet another painful rise in the licence fee.
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Ultimately the TV tax must be abolished. Increasing the pressure on both ministers and BBC execs our chief executive John O'Connell wrote a hard-hitting opinion piece for The Yorkshire Post explaining why the Beeb must be made to stand on its own two feet:
"Auntie is almost out of options. The unstoppable growth of online streaming services has exhausted the credibility of the age-old argument that there is simply no other way to produce decent content than with a mandatory TV charge."
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A not so capital idea
This week the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) published its report on overhauling capital gains tax. Our media team was quick to respond and before long our research director Duncan Simpson was speaking to Julia Hartley-Brewer on talkRadio. He explained that whilst a lot of the ideas in the report were not wholly unreasonable, this is not the time for a tax hike given the current economic carnage.
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Capital gains is already a form of double taxation that discourages investment. Dragging more entrepreneurs into its clutches won’t get the economy booming again. Click here to watch the interview in full.
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MoD in the firing line
The Sunday Mirror reports that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) wrote off £450 million of taxpayers' money last year. This shocking sum of money was lost due to "ditched projects, lost kit, accountancy wrangles and training accidents."
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Our media campaign manager Danielle Boxall didn't hold back in her criticism of the MoD, telling the Sunday Mirror, "It is shocking. It’s time officials cut waste and showed more discipline with the public purse.”
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We need tougher auditing of council spending
TPA grassroots assistant Kieran Neild penned an excellent article for ConservativeHome, detailing why calls for a new quango to regulate council audits is unnecessary, "Instead of establishing a quango, we must continue to devolve power from central watchdogs to taxpayers themselves".
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As we have seen with the bankruptcy of Croydon Council, transparency and accountability are more important than ever. More must be done to open up local authorities' spending to the press and public - the TaxPayers' Alliance is ramping up the pressure on government ministers to make more data available.
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Stamp duty: support the campaign to unlock homes
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If you haven't done so already please sign our petition calling for the rise in the stamp duty threshold to £500,000 to be made permanent. As things stand it won't be long before this stamp duty holiday comes to an end. The hard deadline of 31st March risks pushing the property market over the edge.
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Throughout our 16 year history we've consistently called for it to be abolished. A permanent cut in stamp duty will be a boon to many - tax cuts change lives, not just balance sheet. We will take this petition direct to the Treasury.
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What can the UK government learn from Australia?
I probably sound like a broken record but there's no getting away from the fact that Britain's economy is in a dire state. Reaching for sunnier climes TPA researcher Scott Simmonds has looked at the best policies from Australia's recent federal budget. He makes the convincing case that chancellor Rishi Sunak can find inspiration from our Australian cousins:
"The level of tax cuts is impressive, with more than 7 million Australians set to receive A$2,000 (£1,100) or more in tax relief this year alone. Combined with corporation tax reductions for medium and small businesses this provides encouragement and confidence for businesses throughout the country to grow and invest their way out of the coronavirus pandemic." We are urging Boris and Rishi to seriously consider some of the Australian government’s ideas
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Now is not the time for a tax raid
As discussed above, increasing rates and axing exemptions on capital gains tax (CGT) would be incredibly unwelcome. Following his appearance on talkRadio, Duncan wrote a detailed analysis of the CGT proposals. Whilst he welcomes the Office of Tax Simplification focusing attention on simplifying the tax code, this won't focus government minds on eradicating wasteful spending:
"There’s an often ignored, problem with tax hikes. They take the pressure off the government to identify and remove wasteful spending, which should be the priority when books need to be balanced." Read Duncan's analysis in full.
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Tax reform should focus on growing GDP, not extracting revenue from it
On Friday the Resolution Foundation published Unhealthy finances, a report which highlights the fiscal damage being wreaked by coronavirus and makes the case for an austerity package to fall largely on taxpayers in middle Britain. As TPA research fellow Rory Meakin details, whilst there is plenty of reasonable analysis, "it starkly sets out the case that ordinary taxpayers will have to swallow painful tax rises".
Just like CGT this is not what is needed. Instead Rory argues, "any report on tax after the pandemic should be focused on what reforms, including cuts, can provide in sharpening incentives and enhancing productivity growth." Click here to read more.
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Sketchy spending
There was disbelief among taxpayers as it emerged that a cross-party committee of MPs spent £10,000 on a "sketch of Elizabeth Tower covered in scaffolding". As the MailOnline reported renovation costs of the Parliamentary estate have more than doubled from £29 million to £80 million.
Expressing his dismay at the news John O'Connell told MailOnline's political editor James Tapsfield, "Commissioning expensive art paints a picture of a parliament that can't keep costs under control."
The TPA is putting MPs on notice that we are keeping an even closer eye than usual on their expenses claims. Such profligate spending at a time like this is totally inexcusable.
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Harry Fone
Grassroots Campaign Manager
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