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Tuesday Sep 26, 2006
Youth tax
A new report (PDF file or read the press release) from Reform, a think-tank, has claimed that young people (21-35 year-olds) face an effective tax rate of 50% over the next decade thanks to a combination of rising taxes, student debt repayments and pensions contributions.
Andrew Haldenby, Reform's Director, said: "Young people are in danger of drowning under a sea of rising taxes and new compulsory payments. They are in desperate need of a lifebelt, in the form of a long term commitment to public spending discipline and tax reductions. If politicians want to re-engage with young people, they will find great value in this agenda."
One of the problems, as The Economist points out, is that young people are increasingly reluctant to vote. In 1964, 11% of those aged 18 to 24 claimed not to vote, according to the British Election Study. At the general election last year that figure rose to 55%.
The challenge is to make them feel that voting is worth the effort – and, The Economist says, the opposition parties are starting to sense an opportunity.
David Willetts, the Conservative shadow education secretary, said in a speech last year that the young "could be forgiven for believing that the way in which economic and social policy is now conducted is little less than a conspiracy by the middle-aged" against them. The Liberal Democrat commission on tax policy worried in August about inter-generational unfairness too.
There will be more of such talk. For the Tories, it offers a way to discuss reducing spending without sounding as if they are merely the mouthpiece of the wealthy. It gives Lib Dem leaders a way to argue activists out of promising to out-spend Labour. And it might even persuade some of those gloomy 25-year-olds to vote.
Posted by Tom Green ( 9:19 AM ) Link to this post Comments[0]