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We investigate the real-world impact of the UK tax and legal system, expose avoidance and abuse, and propose practical reforms.

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Nigel Farage’s £5m gift Nigel Farage’s £5m gift: why tax may be due 37 ways Andy Burnham could raise 37 ways Andy Burnham could raise £4.7bn Venables prosecution The Venables prosecution – Tax Policy Associates Andy Burnham’s reported £1.5m mansion tax Andy Burnham’s reported £1.5m mansion tax: who would pay? UK wealth tax UK wealth tax: high risk and anti-growth – Tax Policy Associates
Photo of Nigel Farage in the House of Commons
Jul 17, 2026 Investigations

Reform may owe tax on Nigel Farage’s £5m gift

Christopher Harborne, a British-Thai billionaire, gave Nigel Farage £5m in 2024. Genuine gifts are usually tax-free, and when this article was first published our conclusion was that the £5m was probably not taxable. On 15 July 2026 the Guardian reported that in March 2024 – a few weeks before the gift – Mr Farage told […]
a map of England showing the projected impact of a £1.5m mansion tax
Jul 7, 2026 Analysis

What if Andy Burnham lowered the mansion tax threshold to £1.5m?

The November 2025 Budget introduced a “mansion tax” – formally, the “high value council tax surcharge” – an annual charge on homes worth £2m or more. The Mail on Sunday has reported that Andy Burnham may lower the threshold to £1.5m. We’ve looked at what that might mean: who would pay, where the properties are, […]
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Jul 7, 2026 Policy

Taxing British citizens abroad: why a passport tax won’t work

If you’re a US citizen then you pay US tax wherever in the world you live. Americans can’t escape the US tax system simply by moving abroad; they have to give up their citizenship. The Liberal Democrats and others have suggested the UK should adopt something similar: a “passport tax” on British citizens living overseas. […]
photo of Andy Burnham speaking to a conference
Jul 3, 2026 Policy

37 ways Andy Burnham could raise £4.7bn

Keir Starmer announced £15 billion of additional defence spending – £4.7bn of that is currently unfunded. That leaves Andy Burnham, expected to become Prime Minister, with a problem. Where is he going to find £4.7bn? One answer would be to cut spending. However, I expect the politics are such that Mr Burnham will not do […]
Cash is our preferred method of payment
Jul 1, 2026 Analysis

How Andy Burnham could raise £15bn – without a tax rise.

It’s the UK’s biggest and least discussed tax problem. There’s between £30bn and £48bn missing from each year’s small business tax bills. It’s been getting worse – and nobody knows why. There’s no other issue where so much money is at stake but so little time is spent discussing it. It’s almost never mentioned by […]
redacted tax return
Jun 26, 2026 Analysis

The Palace’s fake tax transparency — and the Prince of Wales’ real tax problem

The Royal Household has, for the first time, disclosed how much voluntary “tax” the King pays: £12.9m for 2024/25, £11.7m for 2023/24, and a little over £5.4m for the six months of 2022/23 in which he was King. The documents also continue the practice of disclosing the Prince of Wales’ tax: £7.76m for 2024/25, £8.34m […]
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