Tax eats into 70% of UK families income

A new study has found that families in Britain pay some of the highest tax rates in the developed world, compared to other nations like Ireland, Canada and Chile.

The research shows that British households with two adults and two children, with one earner, are paying around 73 percent of their income into tax, which is made up mostly of income tax, national insurance contributions and loss of certain benefits.

Social policy charity Christian Action Research and Education CARE said the data meant such a household would take home 27p for every £1 earned, describing Britain as in the “worst place to facilitate the creation of an aspiration nation.”

“Our tax system remains very individualistic and insensitive to family responsibility, compared to those of comparable OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries,” CARE chief executive said,

The report authors say one-earner families and lone parents in Britain are also worse off in the current tax system than they were 20 years ago.

By comparison, families in Ireland pay 64 percent tax, while Canadians pay 61 percent.

In Germany, families pay about 40 percent tax while the figure for France is only 20 percent.

According to CARE’s research, Chilean families with one earner pay only 7 percent, the lowest in the developed world.