5.7 billion wasted on unnecessary tax

UK taxpayers are unnecessarily wasting billions each year in tax, says IFA Promotion.

14:26 27 May 2004

UK taxpayers are unnecessarily wasting billions each year in tax, says IFA Promotion.

The organisation is urging taxpayers to seek independent financial advice in order to take a few simple steps to help reduce their annual wastage.

One of the schemes set to point out how much we spend on tax is "Tax Freedom Day", the point in the year where taxpayers stop working for the government and start working for themselves. This year's date is May 30th

The chief executive of IFA Promotion, David Elms, commented: "Tax Freedom Day highlights to us just how much money is being channelled into the pockets of the taxman and 5.7 billion of it unnecessarily."

This equates to each person wasting on average 132 per year.

He added: "No one likes paying tax, so why pay more than you should? By taking stock of your current financial situation, and becoming more tax savvy with your finances, you can bring your personal Tax Freedom Day forward and start celebrating early."

IFA Promotion's annual TaxAction campaign, reveals that nine out of ten adults in the UK - more than 43 million people - will waste a billions; and yet eight out of ten of us resent our rising tax bills.

Among their recommendations, IFA Promotion highlights that the use of the annual ISA allowance. This could save up to 108 million in tax annually.

Additionally, returning self-assessment tax forms on time could save the UK 412 million, and maximising personal tax allowances could cut back on 443 million of waste.