The UK Government seems to have a favourite saying at the moment, which is that everyone should pay their 'fair share' of tax.

We disagree.

Apart from the fact that 'fair' is a highly subjective notion that should have little place in law, we feel that it is iniquitous that someone who has a vested interest in taking the money from us should decide what is fair! This is legalised mugging, with the mugger saying that you should be grateful because they are giving you their personal and undivided attention.

Is this harsh? Again, we don't think so. When you look at the amount of money the UK Government extorts from the public without them knowing, we think you will agree that the level of UK taxation is already beyond a joke, and that if the Government wants to talk about 'fair' it should be reducing the tax burden, not increasing it.

As this is unlikely, it is only right and proper that you should act to preserve your hard earned income.

How much tax is the Government taking from you?

Tax Freedom Day

The average UK citizen works from New Year's Day to May 24th solely to pay their taxes - the so-called 'Tax Freedom Day'. Effectively, for a third of a year everyone in this country is a civil servant. Income tax, national insurance, VAT, corporation tax, capital gains tax ... tax, tax, tax, the list is endless.

And that's not just in one year, that's every year. This happens all the way through your life. And after tax has been deducted, the little that remains is taxed again! If you spend it you're taxed. If you save it you're taxed. Once you have finished work and start using your savings to take a pension - you are taxed again. When you die - you are taxed again!

However we have looked at this and think that the publicly quoted 'Tax Freedom Day' is actually much later than that.

How Little Of £100 You Get To Keep ...

Of £100 earned, 11% is paid in National Insurance contributions (nothing but a euphemism for an additional tax on income) and 22% is paid in Income Tax (40% for higher rate taxpayers).

Of the remaining £67 of take-home pay let's say that over a week you spend it like this:

£15 for a meal out
£8 on cinema tickets
£16 in petrol
£3 put by for electricity
£7 on some cigarettes
£9 on a few drinks down the pub
£4 paid out in insurance premiums
£3 put aside for Council Tax
£2 put by for Road Tax

Sound reasonable?

Obviously 100% of the last two items are wholly tax.

Your electricity bill is subject to 5% 'Value Added Tax'. Your insurance policy is also subject to a 5% 'Insurance Premium Tax'. When you spend anything at the cinema and eating out, 17.5% is automatically added to the bill to be given to the government in VAT. While you're enjoying yourself, so is the Treasury.

35% of a well-deserved drink goes direct to our masters, and a recent AA campaign followed by the picketing of oil refineries serves to remind us that a staggering 85% of the money spent on petrol is snatched by the taxman. Eighty five per cent! But even that is not the worst. The state loves a smoker, of course, and from the money spent on cigarettes an astonishing 88.9% enters its coffers.

It brings tears to the eyes. Altogether, a full £29.91 of that week's expenses goes straight to the taxman.

Of the £100 earned, £62.91 will have been paid to the government in tax.

At the end of the day, all you will have to show for it is £37.09 in goods and services. A higher-rate taxpayer will retain a miserly £29.09! And that ignores the additional £12.80 your employer will have had to pay to the government.

Oh, and we haven't even taken into consideration the host of taxes on business, airport taxes, capital gains tax ... and then there's stamp duty, where you hand over thousands just because you decide to move house!

'Fair' is not a word we would apply to this - it is purely and simply Highway Robbery.

The REAL 'Tax Freedom Day'

All this means that the real 'Tax Freedom Day' - the day a basic rate taxpayer actually starts earning for himself rather than the Government - is 18 AUGUST!!

This is why you need an accountant.

The average worker paid £6.63 an hour in tax to the Treasury in the 2007/8 tax year last year - more than the minimum wage and 5.6 per cent more than a year ago. The figures, calculated by The Daily Telegraph, and published by them on 22 March 2008 are taken from documents published by the Treasury at the time of the 2008 Budget statement.

Presuming each of the 31.6 million taxpayers in the country works an eight-hour day, and takes the standard time off for holiday, they contributed on average £6.63 for every hour that they worked. In the 2006/7, 31.2 million taxpayers contributed £6.28 each.

Corin Taylor, of the TaxPayers' Alliance campaign group, said: "These higher tax bills are tipping many over the edge. And the crucial point is that we are not getting better public services in return."

In March 2008 the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development calculated that the proportion of income paid by a family - with two children and one earner - in taxes and National Insurance - increased from 25.8 per cent to 28.3 per cent between 2002 and 2007.

Breakdown of £6.63 tax paid by average workers each hour for 07/08 tax year.

Income tax £3.57
VAT £1.37
Alcohol and tobacco duty £0.28
Inheritance Tax £0.07
Council Tax £0.40
National Insurance £0.70
Stamp Duty £0.24
Capital Gains Tax £0.08
Fuel Duty £0.42
Vehicle Excise Duty £0.10
Others (e.g. air tax) £0.40