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TaxPayers' Alliance Bulletin - 21st January 2010 New TPA research: Motorists are being throttled by excessive motoring taxes On Thursday the TPA released new researchshowing just how much motorists were being taxed beyond what can reasonably be "expected" of them beyond VAT – the cost of emissions and road building, for example. Motorists overpay by an eye-watering £17.9 billion, which shows that the Government see them as an easy revenue-raising target. This is grossly unfair and hits ordinary families hardest, who are being taxed exorbitantly for everyday things like driving the kids to school and doing the weekly shop. And for all we hear about getting people working to help the economic recovery, these excessive taxes are hitting the millions of taxpayers that have to drive to work every morning. The Sun newspaper, who published an exclusive look at our report, are running a "Keep it Down" petition to keep the Conservative party true to their pre-election promise of keeping fuel duty down. We urge you to sign it here. The first meeting of the 2020 Tax Commission On Tuesday, the TPA hosted the first meeting of the 2020 Tax Commission, a joint project with the Institute of Directors. Over the course of the year, we are bringing together some of the leading businessmen, academics, journalists, philosophers and analysts to look at ways to really reform the UK's tax system. This will culminate in a final report, due for publication early in 2012. The meeting on Tuesday was a good opportunity for the Commissioners to meet and share their initial thoughts on the state of the UK's tax system. Unsurprisingly, those present felt it is way too complicated and too much of a burden on families and businesses. Future sessions will establish practical steps to change this, and we'll be taking evidence to show just where the UK is going wrong. We want this to be as open and broad an exercise as possible, so we are launching an open call for evidence. The Commission doesn't pretend to have all the answers and we'll need all the evidence we can get to make sure our final report is as robust as possible so that we can achieve real change. If you are interested in making a submission please go to the 2020 Tax Commission website – www.2020tax.org – and click on the "Submit Evidence" button. Please ensure that entries are concise and no more than 4 or 5 pages, as we hope to get as many submissions as possible and we will be unable to properly analyse longer entries. Councils playing politics instead of cutting spending As readers will know, the TPA has long highlighted areas of excessive and wasteful council spending. The fiscal crisis now means that councils will get less money, and will have to make proper decisions to cut genuinely profligate spending. You would hope that local authorities will roll up their sleeves, get the books out and start working hard to find savings. But it seems some would rather pass the buck. A supporter sent us this photo last week, an advert put up by Lambeth Council. A few things spring to mind here – were these posters worth £600 plus the lost revenue from other posters using the space? And more perniciously, why did Lambeth think it appropriate to be play politics with taxpayers' money like this, instead of curbing a decade of over-spending? Many councils have shown there are ways to save money, other can follow their example. TPA Policy Analyst Chris Daniel has more on this here. Grassroots movement growing Those of you who have confirmed you will be attending the training day next Monday will have received your agendas and an e-mail yesterday from Andrew Allison confirming you are on the list of attendees. If you expressed an interest in coming along, but did not confirm your place, please contact Andrew ASAP. There are a few places available, and if anyone else would like to benefit from the excellent training we have on offer, pleasedrop Andrew a line. Last November, we asked for anyone who would like to be involved in a new Hampshire branch to let us know. The good news is we have a group of people together who wish to go forward, and Andrew Allison will be meeting them in Southampton on Saturday 12 February, at 6.30 pm. If you would like to join them, please let Andrew know, and he will give you more information. Best of the Blogs Better Government: Public sector employment and council waste - Matt Sinclair on why we were right to say that local authorities must work harder to cut waste, rather than rely on central subsidies 2020 Tax Commission: Corporation tax cuts not bold enough - Rory Meakin finds businesses underwhelmed by insufficient corporation tax cuts Burning our Money: Non-job of the week - £30 an hour to be a Health and Safety Officer? Andrew Allison with this and more remarkably lucrative non-jobs Campaign: Peer into court - Charlotte Linacre has her eye on the trial of Lord Taylor of Warwick, who is facing charges relating to his expenses Better Government: Councils must stop gorging on taxpayers' money and tighten their belts - Chris Daniel argues local authorities must work harder to cut waste, rather than rely on central subsidies Grassroots: New Year's Day Fines refunded - Andrew Allison with the great news that East Riding Council has agreed to refund all parking tickets issued on New Year's Day Grassroots: Traffic warning signs in Irish? - Lee Canning says we need to stop fiddling around with the cosmetics and focus on the frontline services taxpayers really care about Economics 101: The IPPR's excuses can't cover up the last Government's dire fiscal irresponsibility - Matthew Sinclair attacks an IPPR report's claim that the last government weren't irresponsible with the public finances 2020 Tax Commission: Tax cuts needed to cut chronic youth unemployment - Rory Meakin on the obstacles in the way of youth employment