Ten Things About Tax

Over a month ago I highlighted a resource from the guardian visualising where government spending had been allocated in the last financial year and these figures can be updated for the planned 2011-2012 spending through the HM Treasury website

We are also told where the government plans to raise the finance to pay for (some of!) this spending in the form of taxation and this article from the BBC could be a useful introduction to consider what you already know about taxation.

Finally if you can tear yourself away from Economics revision over the next couple of Wednesday’s then Nick Robinson’s two part series Your Money And How They Spend It will be shown at 9pm on BBC 2 tonight and next week which I’m sure will be worth a watch

Lots of discussion could be had about this data surrounding the role of Fiscal Policy and the impact it has on the macro-economy. We had a good discussion yesterday about the role of direct tax and what tax bands and rates you would set if you were in charge of the economy. Should the government increase its austerity cuts and/or raise tax given the size of the budget deficit and the planned £50billion paid towards debt interest in 2011-2012? There is lots to discuss.