Tax cut promises may need to be rolled back – IFS think tank
A top think tank warns that tax cut promises in elections may need to be reversed due to severe economic challenges.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies says current tax cuts could lead to future tax hikes or spending cuts.
Politicians must be truthful about difficult economic choices, the think tank emphasises.
The Treasury counters, expressing optimism about the economy rebounding and providing more funds for public services.
The IFS director urges political parties to reveal where spending cuts will occur if they promise tax cuts.
“It might be easy to announce immediate tax cuts, without any hint of what it is the state currently does that it will stop doing, or what taxes will rise in future, but this trade-off cannot be wished away”, the IFS’s report said, adding that “it will be more difficult to reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio over the next parliament than in any other parliament since the 1950s”.