Brian Keegan: The Tax Take

Annual budgets attract strings of proposals from politicians, public interest and lobby groups, self-serving to varying degrees, for changes to this tax relief or that tax incentive.

Left-wing groups are predictably renewing their calls for more taxation and more social services (as long as their adherents are not the ones paying the additional taxes) and right-wing groups will be calling for more incentives to stimulate business and growth (as long as their adherents are saving...