**Author details**

**Table 4.** Local tax collections for England.

**7. Conclusions**

94 Taxes and Taxation Trends

a guide to the relative significance of local taxes.

analysis of the likely macro-economic impact.

also a little over three quarters of the total.

reported both in terms of value and in relation to national tax receipts. Collections of local taxes are not included in the national tax receipts figure so the percentages are not shares, just

The results show that receipts from local taxes have broadly kept pace with national tax receipts from 2011 to 2012 until the most recent tax year. The two local taxes combined have

This review of the composition and trend in UK tax revenues has provided an insight into a complex system of different taxes. In the UK there are a multitude of different taxes at national level. Given such a number of different taxes looking at the revenues derived from each is important for prioritization, both from the perspective of budget planning and for

In terms of overall taxation relative to GDP the UK is neither a particularly heavily taxed economy nor is it particularly lightly taxed. For the sample of countries used in **Figure 3** the UK was about mid-range in terms of tax revenues as a percentage of GDP both in 1995 and 2014. The share of tax in GDP in the UK has remained relatively stable at approximately 30%. UK tax revenues in 2015–2016 were dominated by three taxes—personal income tax (32% of total receipts), VAT (22% of the total) and NICs (21%). These three taxes jointly accounted for ¾ of all tax revenues in that year. The composition of UK tax revenues has also tended to be stable over time. For example, the share of the three most important taxes in 2008–2009 was

In comparison to other countries UK tax revenues have a degree of similarity to the US and to France, where personal income tax, social security contributions and taxes on goods and services also dominate revenues. The source of revenues for Malaysia, where revenues are dominated by taxes on corporate income, are very different to those for the UK. Argentina is different again in that revenues from personal income tax only account for a small share of the

total, with taxes on goods and services accounting for about 50% of revenues.

consistently raised revenues roughly equivalent to 10% of national tax receipts.

Zara Ghodsi and Allan Webster\*

\*Address all correspondence to: awebster@bournemouth.ac.uk

Bournemouth University, Poole, Dorset, United Kingdom
