TaxPayers' Alliance

The TaxPayers' Alliance is a right wing British pressure group and taxpayers union formed in 2004 to campaign for a low tax society. The group had about 18,000 registered supporters as of 2008, but has also met with much opposition; most explicitly in the form of "The Other TaxPayers' Alliance", a left wing pressure group who argue for "Fairer taxes not lower taxes" and have opposed many of the current cuts, using the website taxpayersalliance.org as opposed to taxpayersalliance.com which is used by the original Taxpayers alliance.

According to its website, the mission of the TPA is "to reverse the perception that big government is necessary and irreversible; to explain the benefits of a low tax economy; to give taxpayers a voice in the corridors of power; to oppose EU tax harmonisation."

History

The TPA was founded in 2004 by "a group of "libertarian" Conservatives, frustrated by what they saw as the party's decision to ditch its traditional tax cutting message."BBC, 3 March 2008, At the time the Conservative Party felt the need to match the Labour Party's spending plans, and the TPA aimed to represent, in the words of founder and Chief Executive Matthew Elliott, those "who want to have lower taxes and lower spending". The attraction for donors, many associated with...
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