Tax rises are almost certainly coming, Britain’s leading fiscal think tank has said. Those taxes are most likely to fall on pensioners and the wealthy, according to Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).
‘There is a good chance that economic and fiscal forecasts will deteriorate significantly between now and an autumn Budget. If so, she will need to come back for more, which will likely mean raising taxes even further,’ the IFS director said. The tax burden is already just a year away from reaching its highest level in history – beating levels not seen since 1948.
Reeves continues to blame a ‘changing world’ for the economic woes we now face
The Chancellor has returned her headroom against her ‘ironclad’ fiscal rules to £9.9 billion – the exact same margin for error that was wiped away after the Budget last autumn. This means that a fairly minor downgrade to the OBR’s forecasts could quickly force the Chancellor to have to balance the books again.
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