Last year Tax Freedom Day took place on June 3, its latest date since 1988. The average British worker now spends over five months of the year purely working to meet the ever growing demands of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Tax Freedom Day however did not take place on June 3 for Britain’s poorest 10%; it fell over a week later, as the poor pay a greater percentage of their income in tax. This is a disgrace. If we want to help the most vulnerable in society, lowering taxes is one of the best ways to go about it. Lower taxes generate increased revenue and wealth, at the same time as lifting people out of poverty in a more lasting way than any government benefit scheme.

Research carried out by The TaxPayers’ Alliance shows that a poor household will pay on average £250,000 in taxation over the course of a lifetime. Families work hard for their money, they should be able to keep more of what they earn so that they can improve their lives, rather than having to hand so much over to politicians who only waste it. Wanting to keep more of your hard earned money, to spend on the things that you think important should not be seen as selfish. Low taxes should be the foundation of a compassionate and free society.

Lower taxes should not be seen as a desirable extra when times are good; they are a prerequisite for a sound economy. Low taxes encourage people to work, save and invest and if you keep tax rates down the economy grows more quickly. Low taxes also reduce both the opportunity and the incentive for tax avoidance so revenues increase. At the last general election the Liberal Democrat Party said they wanted to raise the top rate of tax for 40% to 50% to raise extra money for public services. The Conservative Party when in power was able to generate the same amount of money by lowering the top rate of tax from 60% - 40%. If people pay less tax, and keep more of their own money, they have more incentive to work and unemployment falls as new jobs are created. Low taxes also make Britain a more attractive country for inward investment which in turn generates jobs and income.

High taxes only serve to penalise the successful while providing little incentive for those on less money to earn more. In the end high taxes make us all poorer, as Dick Cheney recently remarked, “no nation ever taxed its way to prosperity”.

The saying goes that nothing is certain in life apart from death and taxation; we are born free then taxed to death. Low taxes do not just make economic sense they are a moral imperative.