UK taxpayers will have to wait three days longer in 2011 than in the previous year to earn enough money to cover their annual tax bill and start making cash for themselves, according to a thinktank.
The Adam Smith Institute has branded May 30, 2011 "Tax Freedom Day" because it has predicted that every penny earned by the average worker for the first 149 days of the year will go to the Treasury.
It said the predicted date - six days later than in 2009 - is a result of the extra revenues the Government expects to make by hiking the sales tax from 17.5% to 20% from January 4. If the estimate if proved to be correct, it will be the latest the milestone has fallen since 2007 when it stretched into June.
Tom Clougherty, the Institute's executive director, said: "The Government is right to give priority to cutting spending and plugging the deficit. But as Tax Freedom Day shows, Britons are still desperately overtaxed.
"As well as hitting every household in the country, the VAT hike is going to dent consumer confidence and put a dampener on our economic recovery - as the Office of Budget Responsibility has already pointed out."
