Workers toast tax freedom day

By Jennifer Hill

LONDON (Reuters) - Taxpayers will spend 153 days working for the Chancellor this year -- making Monday "tax freedom day".

The day -- the theoretical point in the year when people stop working for the government and start working for themselves -- falls one day earlier than last year, according to the Adam Smith Institute.

But it is still seven days later than when the current Labour government came to power in 1997.

The individual taxpayer has borne the brunt of Labour's tax policies, according to a report by accountancy firm BDO Stoy Hayward released to coincide with "tax freedom day".

The key areas of taxation where the average worker is feeling the pinch include:

* Income tax and national insurance: the average taxpayer is now working for nearly 2-1/2 months to pay their share of these taxes alone -- 10 days longer than in 1997/98.

* Stamp duties: the number of days the average taxpayer works to meet these taxes has more than doubled to four since Labour came to power, due to rocketing house prices and a hike in the top rate from 1 percent in 1997 to 4 percent in 2000.

* Council tax: taxpayers are working 34 percent longer (one week in total) to pay their share than they were 10 years ago, due to the government more than doubling the tax take to 23.7 billion pounds to cover the increasing expectations and burden placed upon local government.