Where the words come from
Which UK taxes are direct (income tax, National Insurance contributions, council tax) and which are indirect (VAT, duty on tobacco, alcohol and fuel, stamp duty) — Effects of taxes and benefits on UK household income: financial year ending 2024, Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/bulletins/theeffectsoftaxesandbenefitsonhouseholdincome/2024. Changes: The bulletin's lists of direct and indirect taxes used for the recap's indirect examples (VAT, fuel duty); the recap's direct examples are income tax and National Insurance.
Income tax bands outside Scotland, 2026 to 2027: Personal Allowance £12,570, basic rate 20%, higher rate 40% above £50,270, additional rate 45% above £125,140 — Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances, GOV.UK, Open Government Licence v3.0. https://www.gov.uk/income-tax-rates. Changes: The band table restated as one sentence with the tax year given; the card's definition is our summary.
Employee Class 1 National Insurance rates for 2026 to 2027: 8% on weekly earnings from £242.01 to £967, 2% above £967 — National Insurance rates and categories, GOV.UK, Open Government Licence v3.0. https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance-rates-letters. Changes: Category A rates only, weekly figures rounded to whole pounds; the card's definition is our summary.
Corporation Tax main rate 25% for profits over £250,000 and small profits rate 19% for profits of £50,000 or less, from 1 April 2023 — Corporation Tax rates and reliefs, GOV.UK, Open Government Licence v3.0. https://www.gov.uk/corporation-tax-rates. Changes: Marginal relief between the two thresholds left out; the card's definition is ours, following 2e 30.2's "The common name for corporate income is 'profits'".
VAT rates: standard 20% (since 4 January 2011), reduced 5% (for example home energy), zero (for example most food and children's clothes) — VAT rates, GOV.UK, Open Government Licence v3.0. https://www.gov.uk/vat-rates. Changes: The rate table restated as two sentences; the card's definition is ours; the start date of the 20% rate is not used.
An excise tax as a tax on a particular good, levied on petrol, tobacco and alcohol; the payroll tax split between employer and employee, with the employer's half probably passed to employees as lower wages — Principles of Economics 2e, OpenStax, licensed CC BY 4.0. https://openstax.org/books/principles-economics-2e/pages/30-2-taxation. Changes: "excise tax—that is, a tax on a particular good—on gasoline, tobacco, and alcohol" recast as the excise duties card, with gasoline as fuel and "usually a fixed amount on each unit" ours; US payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare rendered as employers' National Insurance, and "probably passed along" softened to "part of that cost can reach workers"; the fuel-duty example is ours.
Tax incidence: the burden of an excise tax falls on the more inelastic side of the market, as with cigarette taxes passed mainly to consumers — Principles of Economics 2e, OpenStax, licensed CC BY 4.0. https://openstax.org/books/principles-economics-2e/pages/5-3-elasticity-and-pricing. Changes: Condensed to one sentence with no elasticity vocabulary for GCSE ("how far buyers cut back when the price rises"); the PAYE sentence is ours; the employer National Insurance sentence comes from 30.2 (see the openstax2e record).
Excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol and sales taxes are criticised as regressive although everyone pays the same rate; the income tax as progressive — Principles of Economics 2e, OpenStax, licensed CC BY 4.0. https://openstax.org/books/principles-economics-2e/pages/30-critical-thinking-questions and https://openstax.org/books/principles-economics-2e/pages/30-2-taxation. Changes: The critical-thinking question's premise stated as a fact and answered; the saving-share reason, the zero-rating sentence and the second paragraph (avoidance, aiming at tobacco) are ours; US sales taxes rendered as VAT.
Questions, options, diagrams and feedback are our own. Figures credited to a source above are that source's; every other figure is invented to show the method.