Britain’s tax bill at its highest since 1955 in comparison to earnings

Tory heavyweights have taken aim at high taxes in the UK to mark what a think tank has dubbed Tax Freedom Day, a measure of when Brits stop paying tax and start pocketing their earnings.

The Adam Smith Institute has estimated that every penny the average person earned for working up to and including 29 May went to the taxman.

By this measure, Brits went 149 days before taking home their earnings, the longest period since 1955.

Conservative leadership candidate and home secretary Sajid Javid said “simpler, flatter, lower taxes” should be a priority for the government and that they both “good economic sense” and are “also the right thing to do.”

Esther McVey, also running for leadership of the Tory party added: “Higher tax bills hit the least well-off families the hardest and it is dispiriting for hard-working taxpayers to have to work right up until the start of June just to pay their yearly tax bill.”

A HM Treasury spokesperson said: “The UK’s tax burden is below the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average, and in line with competitors.

“Since 2010 we have reduced the burden of tax, so people can keep more of their hard-earned money, by increasing the personal allowance and freezing fuel duty. We’re also cutting corporation tax to help over one million businesses to grow.”

Tax Freedom Day in the United Kingdom is now well over a month later than in the USA, where this year it fell on 16 April, down from 19 April the year earlier.