Average family pay £735,000 in taxes over their lifetime

... and it takes 15,610 homes to fund a year of foreign aid!

FAMILIES pay an average of almost £735,000 in taxes over a lifetime, figures show.

And it takes the lifetime tax bills of 15,610 families to pay for just one year of the £11.46billion overseas aid budget.

The startling figures prompted campaigners to call on the Government to stamp out wasteful spending so that taxes can be lowered.

Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, which compiled the figures, said: ‘The new analysis shows just how heavy the burden of taxation falls on each and every family across Britain, pushing up the cost of living.

‘Every arm of local and central government must redouble its efforts to root out unnecessary spending and inefficiency in everything they do so that not a penny of this extraordinary bill is wasted.’ He added: ‘Britain’s tax bill is too high, it must come down and that means cutting out wasteful spending.’

The figures were calculated using current tax rates applied over an average working lifetime of 40 years and 15 years of retirement. The researchers also split the data into five income groups.

The huge tax bill for the average family – which was considered to be a household with a combined income of £39,200 a year – included £253,040 in income tax, £ 146,775 in VAT, £92,795 in national insurance and £59,955 of council tax.

The total of £734,240 is a small increase on last year’s figures, and the average Briton would have to work the equivalent of 18.7 years just to pay off this tax bill.

The poorest fifth of families, who have an average annual income of £12,914, will pay a lifetime tax bill of £282,545 – an increase of 4.1 per cent from last year.

Meanwhile the top 20 per cent of earners, with a household income of around £83,750, pay £1.48million in taxes, which is a fall of 2.2 per cent.

Last year George Osborne started issuing annual statements showing people how their taxes are spent, in a bid to introduce more transparency for taxpayers. Someone on £30,000 a year would see £1,663 of their taxes go towards welfare, £1,280 spent on health, £892 on education, £822 to state pension, £51 to the EU budget and £78 to overseas aid.

The Chancellor has also asked the Treasury to consider combining income tax and National Insurance. The move would dramatically simplify the tax system but could also put pressure on the Government to bring down taxes, as workers could be alarmed if they are presented with one, larger total.