Immigrants pay more tax than British
With Conservatives pushing migration as a key election issue, a new report from the left-leaning IPPR claims that immigrants make a greater proportional tax contribution than anyone else.
A study from the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) calculates that although the migrant workforce comprises less than nine per cent of the population, it contributes over ten per cent of the income tax collected.
Migrants, who are defined as people born outside the UK but resident here, now pay £41 billion in taxes.
Foreign-born workers earn £405.83 a week, compared to a resident average of £355.06. The discrepancy is accounted for both by the fact that many migrants are in skilled highly paid jobs, but also because some are in lesser-paid jobs but with long hours.
According to the report total tax revenue from migrants grew 22 per cent in real terms, from £33.8 billion from 1999-2000 to £41.2 billion between 2003 and 2004.
Senior research fellow at the IPPR, Danny Sriskandarajah, said: “Our analysis shows that the contribution of immigrants to public finances is growing and is likely to continue to grow in the near future.”
However, the authors of the IPPR report stressed that their analysis was tentative, and based upon Treasury data as well as their own survey data.
