Tax policy and the 1991 budget

Paul Johnson, Andrew Dilnot and Graham Stark
Additional contact information
Paul Johnson: Institute for Fiscal Studies
Andrew Dilnot: Institute for Fiscal Studies and University of Oxford
Graham Stark: Institute for Fiscal Studies

Fiscal Studies, 1991, vol. 12, issue 2, 22-23

Abstract: Prior to this year's Budget, the almost universal expectation was that the Chancellor would not attempt to make any changes to the tax system. The possible exception to this appeared to be some moves to appear 'green', perhaps by using the tax system to discourage the use of motor vehicles, particularly large ones. In the event these expectations were confounded. Not only did we see a sharp increase in central government taxation at the expense of local government, funded by the first rise in the VAT rate since 1979, but also a long-overdue widening of the base for National Insurance contributions to company cars and the restriction of mortgage interest relief to the basic rate. Also announced were increases in company car scale charges, increases in child benefit and the freezing of the married couple's allowance. Here we try to assess the impact of these changes both from the point of view of distributional objectives and from the point of view of economic efficiency. Initially each change is assessed in isolation before an attempt is made to look at the Budget as a whole.

Date: 1991
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ifs:fistud:v:12:y:1991:i:2:p:22-23

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
The Institute for Fiscal Studies 7 Ridgmount Street LONDON WC1E 7AE

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Fiscal Studies from Institute for Fiscal Studies The Institute for Fiscal Studies 7 Ridgmount Street LONDON WC1E 7AE. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emma Hyman ().