It’s Budget day today. With the tax burden predicted to amount to 37 per cent of national income by the next election, the 2019 to 2024 parliament is set to go down as the biggest tax-raising parliament in modern times. A rather impressive feat for a Tory party that likes to paint itself as one of low taxes and financial stability. In fact, under the last 14 years of Conservative government, Mr S has discovered there have been over 1,000 tax rises.

While we eagerly await today’s Budget announcements, here is a list of some of the most significant tax hikes introduced under various Tory Chancellors since 2010…

Income tax rise by stealth

When George Osborne was Chancellor in the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government, he reduced Labour’s ‘additional’ 50p income tax rate to 45p in 2012. Liz Truss tried to cut that further in her short-lived mini-Budget of 2022. But recent years have seen more tax rises than tax cuts via the process known as ‘fiscal drag’ whereby the Treasury freezes income tax thresholds while people’s salaries are growing. In a time of high inflation, that sees its revenue rise significantly.

Sunak began the trend in the 2021 Budget when he said he would freeze income tax thresholds – meaning more people were dragged into higher tax brackets. The Resolution Foundation estimates that fiscal drag will deliver £40bn a year by the end of the freeze in 2028.

Corporation tax

In 2021, Sunak became the first Chancellor in almost 50 years to raise corporation tax, increasing the rate from 19 per cent to 25 per cent. That brought it higher than the average headline rate of corporation tax in the EU, which was 22.2 per cent in 2020, and the 21 per cent headline rate in the US. For context, Jeremy Corbyn had advocated 26 per cent…

Health and social care levy

The introduction of a health and social care levy under Boris Johnson in September 2021 infuriated Tory backbenchers at the time. The levy, of 1.25 percentage points, was added to national insurance payments of staff, pushing the national insurance rate for employees to 13.25 per cent and 15.05 per cent for employers.

Oil and gas windfall tax

The Tories brought in an oil and gas windfall tax in 2022, which Hunt raised and extended – resulting in a 75 per cent levy for the North Sea. The industry has not responded well, with a number of companies slimming down their investments in the north of Scotland. The issue of whether the government would raise or extend the windfall tax was raised at the recent Scottish Conservative party conference last weekend but Sunak refused to commit to a decision. Douglas Ross has said an extension would be an ‘unacceptable blow’ – and indeed almost came to blows with Sunak last night over the matter – yet it seems likely that Hunt will ignore his pleas today…

Second homes tax

The cost of owning a second home has risen by 600 per cent over the last decade. It means that in 2012, a second home buyer would have, on average, paid around £2,200 in stamp duty and council tax. In 2024, the number is closer to £13,000. The government brought in a three per cent stamp duty land tax surcharge in 2016 for second homes and in 2025, powers to double council tax for those who own a second home will come into force.

Alcohol duty

The duty on wine has increased by almost 58 per cent since 2010, while duty on beer has risen by a fifth and that on spirits has increased by a third. Jeremy Hunt was last year criticised by alcohol producers after he announced that while taxes on beer would remain frozen, levies on wine and whisky would rise in line with inflation. ‘British ale is warm but the duty on a pint is frozen,’ Hunt joked – but the Wine & Spirits Trade Association didn’t see the funny side, warning that the ‘crippling’ move would ‘damage British business’.

Tobacco duty

Tobacco duty has undergone various changes over the last 14 years. Since 2010, duty escalators have been applied, while at the 2011 Budget, cheaper cigarettes saw a larger rise in tax. Hand-rolling tobacco received more attention in 2017, and again in 2021, with a higher duty increase than the escalator would allow for other tobacco products. Last year Hunt increased the duty rates on all tobacco products while hand-rolling tobacco bore the brunt with increases of an additional 10 per cent.

Apprenticeship levy

David Cameron’s apprenticeship levy was controversial from the outset, when business bosses raised concerns that small companies might not benefit and that the plans wouldn’t develop the right quality of training. The levy makes large companies set aside 0.5 per cent of their total annual pay bill to fund apprenticeship training. Cameron’s goal was to train three million apprentices by 2020 – but in recent years, the British Retail Consortium has dubbed it a ‘£3.5bn mistake’ and has called for urgent reform.

VAT rises

During the Cameron-Clegg coalition, Osborne raised VAT from 17.5 per cent to 20 per cent in 2011, which was predicted to raise approximately £12bn from 2011-12 onwards. It became a Labour attack line, and so in 2015, Ed Miliband quizzed Cameron at the despatch box about whether he could rule out a rise in VAT. Slightly muddling his response, the PM replied: ‘Straight answers deserve straight questions and the answer’s yes.’

In 2015, measures aimed to reduce levels of tax avoidance and evasion were introduced and in 2019-20, it became mandatory for companies over the VAT registration threshold to go digital with their taxes. In 2020, a temporary cut from 20 per cent to 5 per cent for the hospitality sector was brought in, returning to 12.5 per cent between September 2021 and March 2022. Since then, the threshold has been frozen at 2017-18 rates.

Sugar tax

Osborne introduced the sugar tax in 2016 in a Tory bid to clamp down on obesity rates in the UK, and it formed a key part of the government’s childhood obesity strategy. The levy was 18p per litre on soft drinks that contained between 5-8g of sugar per 100ml, and 24p per litre for drinks above the 8g threshold. Producers were given two years after the levy was announced to reformulate their recipes in time for the tax coming into force – but critics said it overstepped, calling it overly interventionist and disproportionately affecting lower income families.