Charm semileptonic decays at LHCb

In these proceedings, we explore the possible reach of the LHCb dataset in the area of charm semileptonic decays. Specifically, we give prospects for the measurement of $|V_{cs}|/|V_{cd}|$ using $\mathcal{B}(D^0\to K^-\mu^+\nu_\mu)/\mathcal{B}(D^0\to\pi^-\mu^+\nu_\mu)$ with Run I data. Preliminary projections show that the LHCb Run I dataset would give a relative statistical uncertainty of $\sim 0.2\%$ on this ratio. We also motivate the search for lepton non-universality in the charm sector.Comment: Proceedings of the 9th International Workshop on the CKM Unitarity Triangle, 28 November - 3 December 2016, Tata Institute for Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, India. 6 pages, 3 figure

A survey of the UK tax system

This document provides an overview of the UK tax system, describing how each of the main taxes works and setting their current state into the context of the past 27 years

Take-up of family credit and working families' tax credit: final report

The current government has substantially increased the use of means-tested tax and benefit programmes to try to help people on low incomes. An important early example of this was the replacement in October 1999 of Family Credit (FC), a benefit providing support for low-income working parents, by Working Families' Tax Credit (WFTC). WFTC was delivered differently from FC, it was described as a tax credit rather than a benefit, and it was also much more generous than its predecessor. However, the efficacy of using means-testing to help people on low incomes is limited by the fact that many of the people eligible for means-tested programmes do not take them up. Because of this, one of the government's stated aims when introducing WFTC was to encourage take-up, arguing that as a tax credit rather than a welfare benefit, it will reduce the stigma associated with claiming in-work support, and encourage higher take-up. In this paper we try to answer the question of whether the replacement of FC by WFTC did indeed encourage take-up. We also try and identify more generally what factors are important in explaining non-take-up of FC and WFTC, in particular quantifying the effect of entitlement level and examining the effects of people's knowledge of, and attitudes towards, in-work support. Our approach is an econometric one, investigating the relationship between take-up of FC/WFTC and a variety of explanatory variables in two micro-data-sets, the Family Resources Survey (FRS) and the Families and Children Survey (FACS)

Options for a UK 'flat tax': some simple simulations

This Briefing Note analyses the effects of four possible flat tax systems for the UK: one that flattens the rate structure of income tax only, one that also flattens National Insurance contributions, and two that flatten the combined rate structure of income tax and tax credits (with and without flattening National Insurance contributions as well). In all cases, the tax base is left unchanged. The analysis is conducted for the working-age population only, and in all cases the reforms are designed to be revenue neutral under the strong assumption that people do not change their behaviour in response to the reforms. We examine the effects of the reforms on particular example families and on the overall distributions of income and work incentives