George Beglan: The tax system has a hidden free-rider problem
George Beglan discusses the hidden issues within the British tax system related to child-rearing. He argues that the current system fails to recognize the societal benefits of raising children, leading to under-investment in this crucial area. Beglan suggests reforms that would enhance recognition for parents and align the tax system with public finance principles.
- ▪Britain's fertility rate is 1.41, significantly below the replacement rate of 2.1.
- ▪The private return to child-rearing is much lower than the social return, creating a positive externality.
- ▪Beglan proposes reforms such as enhanced state pension calculations for parents and non-means-tested parental tax credits.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
George Beglan holds an LLM (Distinction) from Durham and read Jurisprudence at Oxford; he has published on law reform in the Cambridge Law Review Britain’s fertility rate is 1.41. Replacement is 2.1. The gap between those two numbers is not a cultural curiosity; it is a balance sheet problem, compounding slowly and largely in silence. Every pay-as-you-go system the British state operates, pensions, the NHS, social care, depends on a working-age population large enough to fund it. That population is produced by parents, at private cost, for collective benefit. The parent bears the full expense: the years of foregone income, the time, the attention, the capital.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at ConservativeHome.
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