OK then explain the UK tax system please.?

In simple terms:

If you work, you pay tax.
If you save, you pay tax.
If you spend, you pay tax.
If you eat, you pay tax.
If you drink, you pay tax.
If you have a roof over your head, you pay tax.
If you set up a business, you pay tax.
If you work for other people you pay tax.
If you employ other people, you pay tax.

The average UK citizen works from New Year's Day to May 24th solely to pay their taxes - the so-called 'Tax Freedom Day'. Effectively, for a third of a year everyone in this country is a civil servant. Income tax, national insurance, VAT, corporation tax, capital gains tax, the list is endless.

And that's not just in one year, that's every year. This happens all the way through your life. And after tax has been deducted, the little that remains is taxed again! If you spend it you're taxed. If you save it you're taxed. Once you have finished work and start using your savings to take a pension - you are taxed again. When you die - you are taxed again!

However I have looked at this and think that the publicly quoted 'Tax Freedom Day' is actually much later than that.

How Little Of £100 You Get To Keep ...

Of £100 earned, 11% is paid in National Insurance contributions (nothing but a euphemism for an additional tax on income) and 22% is paid in Income Tax (40% for higher rate taxpayers).

Of the remaining £67 of take-home pay let's say that over a week you spend it like this:

£15 for a meal out
£8 on cinema tickets
£16 in petrol
£3 put by for electricity
£7 on some cigarettes
£9 on a few drinks down the pub
£4 paid out in insurance premiums
£3 put aside for Council Tax
£2 put by for Road Tax

Sound reasonable?

Obviously 100% of the last two items are wholly tax.

Your electricity bill is subject to 5% 'Value Added Tax'. Your insurance policy is also subject to a 5% 'Insurance Premium Tax'. When you spend anything at the cinema and eating out, 17.5% is automatically added to the bill to be given to the government in VAT. While you're enjoying yourself, so is the Treasury.

35% of a well-deserved drink goes direct to our masters, and a recent AA campaign followed by the picketing of oil refineries serves to remind us that a staggering 85% of the money spent on petrol is snatched by the taxman. Eighty five per cent! But even that is not the worst. The state loves a smoker, of course, and from the money spent on cigarettes an astonishing 88.9% enters its coffers.

Altogether, a full £29.91 of that week's expenses goes straight to the taxman.

Of the £100 earned, £62.91 will have been paid to the government in tax.

At the end of the day, all you will have to show for it is £37.09 in goods and services. A higher-rate taxpayer will retain a miserly £29.09! And that ignores the additional £12.80 your employer will have had to pay to the government.

Oh, and we haven't even taken into consideration the host of taxes on business, airport taxes, capital gains tax ... and then there's stamp duty, where you hand over thousands just because you decide to move house!

All this means that the real 'Tax Freedom Day' - the day a basic rate taxpayer actually starts earning for himself rather than the Government - is 18 AUGUST!!

The average worker paid £6.63 an hour in tax to the Treasury in the 2007/8 tax year last year - more than the minimum wage and 5.6 per cent more than a year ago. The figures, calculated by The Daily Telegraph, and published by them on 22 March 2008 are taken from documents published by the Treasury at the time of the 2008 Budget statement.

Presuming each of the 31.6 million taxpayers in the country works an eight-hour day, and takes the standard time off for holiday, they contributed on average £6.63 for every hour that they worked. In the 2006/7, 31.2 million taxpayers contributed £6.28 each.

Corin Taylor, of the TaxPayers' Alliance campaign group, said: "These higher tax bills are tipping many over the edge. And the crucial point is that we are not getting better public services in return."

Breakdown of £6.63 tax paid by average workers each hour for 07/08 tax year.

Income tax £3.57
VAT £1.37
Alcohol and tobacco duty £0.28
Inheritance Tax £0.07
Council Tax £0.40
National Insurance £0.70
Stamp Duty £0.24
Capital Gains Tax £0.08
Fuel Duty £0.42
Vehicle Excise Duty £0.10
Others (e.g. air tax) £0.40

Hey ho - nothing in life is sure except death and taxes.