Tax transparency is a triumph for Osborne

Transparency marches on, and what a joy it is. According to the newspapers today, George Osborne will tomorrow turn Ben Gummer MP’s call for tax transparency into government policy. And so we will all get statements detailing just what our tax pounds are spent on. To use the example being bandied around this morning, a £50,000 earner will learn that they contribute £4,727 towards welfare payments.

As James put it at the weekend, George Osborne tends to have both economic and political motives behind his actions — and the two are present, if almost indivisible, here. No doubt the Chancellor hopes that taxpayers, on seeing where their hard-earned ends up, will be keener for cuts in both spending and taxation. Economically, that would create space for the sort of deficit reduction that the coalition is aiming for. Politically, it might nurture Tory instincts among the voting public.

Most of all, though, this is a victory against the idea that Whitehall not only knows best but should also be the only ones to know — and ought to be welcomed as such.