ABSTRACT
This chapter is devoted to an analysis of the United Kingdom’s tax system. We consider the present status of the main taxes in the context of a 30year period, their working and future reforms.
The current tax system was born with the reforms of the 1980s. The pre-reform tax system might have contributed to negative economic performance in the UK during the 1960s and 1970s. It was mainly designed to redistribute income, but in fact achieved little redistribution and weakened work incentives for many people. Since the 1980s, the UK has embarked on a series of structural reform that have changed the institutions and the role of the public sector in product, labor and financial markets. The income tax rate structure has been transformed, savings taxation has been repeatedly adjusted, the national insurance contributions system has been overhauled, VAT doubled and some excise duties changed.
