TaxPayers' Alliance

The TaxPayers' Alliance is a British pressure group formed in 2004 to campaign for "a low tax society" and claims to have over 18,000 supporters. A grassroots campaign, it also has a strong media presence, claiming to achieve an average of 13 media hits a day. [http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/about/history.php]

The Taxpayers' Alliance is a member of the Stockholm Network.

All three founders, and a number of TPA staff members have associations with the Conservative Party [http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/about/2007/08/florence-heath.html] [http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/about/2007/08/matthew-elliott.html] [http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/about/2007/08/andrew-allum-fo.html]

The Alliance claim their mission is: [http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/about/mission.php]

*To reverse the perception that big government is necessary and irreversible.
*To explain the benefits of a low tax economy.
*To give taxpayers a voice in the corridors of power.
*To oppose EU tax harmonisation.

Prominent supporters

In November 2004 and December 2005, the Alliance sent letters to the "Financial Times" and "The Daily Telegraph" in opposition to high taxation. [http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/about/business_supporters.php] The signatories included Adam Afriyie, Tim Congdon, Howard Flight, Ruth Lea, Patrick Minford, Kenneth Minogue, Andrew Roberts, Lord Salisbury and Roger Scruton.

Campaigns, issues and publications

Bumper Book of Government Waste

Since 2005 the Alliance publishes an annual book, "The Bumper Book of Government Waste", detailing "waste" in government departments, local government, devolved government, The Royal Family and the European Union. [http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/waste/2007/10/the-bumper-book.html]

Council Spending Uncovered

The Council Spending Uncovered Campaign uses accounts from every local authority in the United Kingdom, obtained through Freedom of Information requests, in order to "review spending by local authorities in all corners of the UK and identify a number of budgets that could and should be reduced.... [the campaign] enables taxpayers to judge for themselves whether their money is well spent." [http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/home/files/council_spending_uncovered_3_pension_contributions.pdf] The Alliance argues that "By trimming the fat from their budgets, councils can reduce the burden on hard-pressed families and pensioners without cutting important services." [http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/home/files/council_spending_uncovered_3_pension_contributions.pdf]

So far the campaign has uncovered:
* £450 million of spending on local government publicity. [http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/home/files/council_spending_uncovered_1_publicity.pdf]
* a nine-fold increase in the number of local government staff earning £50,000 or more [http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/home/files/council_spending_uncovered_2_middle_management_pay.pdf]
* that the "outdated" Local Government Pension Scheme costs £4.6 billion in employer contributions each year, equivalent to £1 in every £5 of council tax [http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/home/files/council_spending_uncovered_3_pension_contributions.pdf]

Google Government

The TPA is a leading proponent of "Google government", arguing that taxpayers have a right to scrutinise how their money is being spent, and citing the success of similar initiatives abroad, e.g. USAspending.gov, which was established by the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 in the USA. To that end, TPA publishes large amounts of information on public spending on its website, including the council by council data of the Council Spending Uncovered research series and the What's My Car Tax? database which allows people to find out how the 2008 Budget will affect their car tax. [http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/whatsmycartax/]

MPs' Expenses

The Alliance has been at the forefront of recent calls for more accountability and transparency in Parliament. In the aftermath of the Derek Conway scandal, TPA has called publicly for greatly increased transparency, improved scrutiny of expenses and the abolition of some expenses such as the allowance for MPs' second homes. [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=512742&in_page_id=1770] The Alliance has also written to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner to request an investigation into the expenses of Michael Martin MP Speaker of the House of Commons. [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3428007.ece]

Awards

In 2007 the TaxPayers' Alliance won the Innovation Award at the Stockholm Network's "Golden Umbrellas" think tank awards. [http://www.stockholm-network.org/downloads/press/GUWinners.pdf]

References

External links

* [http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/ Official website]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7241315.stm BBC Profile Article on the TaxPayers' Alliance]