We're Overtaxed

The economy is growing, but the one that Gordon Brown has less part in is growing faster. Freed from the excessive regulation and taxation that comes from the dead hand of the state the black economy is showing what can be done. This is not the criminal economy either, which is also growing fast and being ignored by the government, this is what would be legitimate business where it paying tax

. He defines the shadow economy as all market-based legal production of goods and services that are deliberately concealed from public authorities to avoid paying income, value added or other taxes or national insurance contributions; to avoid having to meet certain legal labour market standards, such as minimum wages, maximum working hours, safety standards; and to avoid the other kinds of red tape with which the official economy is burdened, such as legal requirements to fill in statistical questionnaires.

In Britain the untaxed economy is roughly 12.2% of the total "in France it is 14.5% and in Germany 16.8%" where they still, just about, pay more tax than we do. The Laffer Curve in action, and perfectly rational. With the current tax situation if you are "Working half-time on the minimum wage and you pay income tax", where up until the 1960s you had to be paying about the average income before you got income tax at all.