Communicating Tax: Exploring Alternatives to the Government's Annual Tax Summary

This report presents the findings from an ESRC-funded research project which examined the Annual Tax Summary, a personalised tax and spending statement sent to income taxpayers in the UK. Working with a range of stakeholders, the authors evaluated the Annual Tax Summary and explored alternative ways of reporting on and communicating about tax and public spending. The report draws attention to the political interests that inform fiscal transparency initiatives and challenges common sense confidence in data visualisation as tool for delivering transparency. It questions forms of communication that monetise and individualise taxpayers’ contribute to public spending, and that set certain groups of people in tension with each other. In response to each of these issues the authors offer recommendations for communicators who seek to champion the role of tax in society.

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