BRITAIN’S tax burden is now at its highest in half a century, an alarming report has found.

Money raised from taxes during the current financial year will account for 34.6 per cent of national output, according to the Taxpayers’ Alliance study.

3 Britain's tax burden has risen to its highest level in decades Credit: Alamy

The tax burden has rocketed nearly 2 per cent in just three years.

And it is the highest proportion of Gross Domestic Product since 1969, when it stood at 35 per cent under Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

Overall revenues collected by HMRC are at a 32-year high - at 37 per cent of GDP.

The Government expects to raise £787billion in total receipts - equivalent to roughly £29,000 per household.

3 Philip Hammond has seen the overall tax burden rise Credit: Reuters

These receipts will partly finance its £813billion of spending - leaving a deficit of £26billion.

This revenue is a mix of interest payments, dividends and profits from trading activities - but most are taxes.

Alarmingly, Britain’s poorest 10 per cent of earners pay half of their income in tax.

The report warned that the tax burden will remain around the same level for the next five years under the Treasury’s current plans.

The tax burden will be higher in each of the next five years than in any year since 1970, the TPA study found.

This is despite Philip Hammond bringing forward an income tax cut for 32million households next April.

3 The last time taxes were so high was under Harold Wilson Credit: Getty - Contributor

The TPA report calls on the Government to set a new target to cut the tax burden to 29.9 per cent of GDP by abolishing inheritance and capital gains taxes, air passenger duty and stamp duty, cutting income tax and halving national insurance.

It said this would amount to nearly £100 billion of tax cuts and bring the tax burden on households to the levels last seen under Sir John Major, who left No10 with a tax take of £3 in £10 of GDP.

The tax burden for 2018/19 is higher than previously thought.

Earlier this year it was forecast to be 34.3 per cent of GDP but Philip Hammond’s October Budget revealed it would be 0.3 per cent higher.

Just three years ago the tax burden was just 32.7 per cent.

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TPA chief executive John O’Connell said: "For all the talk of increasing taxes to help the poorest the truth is that the steady growth of the tax burden often hits precisely those families the hardest, leaving them with less money to pay for the essentials.

“The highest tax burden in fifty years is still not enough for socialists, of course, whose answer to everything is to either increase borrowing or taxes.

“Other countries like the US and Australia are cutting taxes and we should be looking to replicate that to boost the economy and ease the burden on the most hard-up taxpayers."

A Treasury spokesman said: “Since 2010 the Government has continued to increase the personal allowance meaning that 32 million individuals will now see their income tax bill reduced next year.

"We are helping families by freezing fuel duty, increasing the national living wage to £8.21 and cutting corporation tax to help over a million businesses.”

THE SUN SAYS: END TAX HELL HOW shameful that our tax burden is the highest it has been in half a century. The Tories once stood for low taxes. What happened? US President Donald Trump has shown that tax cuts make a real ­difference to ordinary people. Slashing taxes here would help to turbo-charge our economy, too. Instead, this Government focuses on new ways to hammer pockets. There is little justification for slapping a 15p tax on sandwich packaging and doubling the 5p charge on plastic bags. Plastic in our oceans is mostly from rivers in Asia and Africa, not from ­Britain. This move will just load more costs and inconvenience on shoppers. The Tories must have a serious rethink.

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