We are often told the UK tax system is “progressive” and fair. But step back and look at the full economic chain, from value creation to consumption and a more disturbing picture emerges of a very subtle, large-scale scam.
In today’s video, tax accountant Tom McNally takes £100 of value created between employer and employee and shows us how little is left when UK taxes are taken from it. Now it’s important to realise the “£80–£90 paid out of £100” he illustrates in the video is not a literal tax breakdown because it is not answering “what is left from £100 that an employee is paid, after tax” — in effect the breakdown given is,
“what is left after the employer and employee both pay taxes from £100 earnt simultaneously?”
Technicalities aside, Mr McNally captures something real which is the main point of the scam you are victim of: taxation occurs at multiple stages, and the cumulative effect significantly reduces the portion of value you as a citizen ultimately own and control.
This scam is compounded because most people, when they think of tax, think of the income tax they pay. This is why the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development can technically state that the average single worker in the UK keeps roughly 78p of every £1 of gross wage after income tax and employee National Insurance1. That sounds reasonable… until you remember that this doesn’t include the next layer of taxation.
This is because we are deliberately conditioned to think this way, due to the focus that Parliament’s budget, the politicians and media place on the income tax rate. That is merely what the employer takes directly from their wages. Therefore the public rarely thinks of the other taxes in the value chain scam. This tactic goes hand-in-hand with the way we have been scammed out of critical thinking; we are taught to not question, not analyse, not look beneath the surface of the messages we are given by the “authorities”.
The true scale of taxes paid
So let’s just consider some of these other taxes…
Before wages are even paid to you, the employer pays National Insurance contributions (15%2 on most employee earnings above a certain threshold). That reduces the amount available for wages from the outset.
Then the employee pays income tax —20% at the basic rate, 40% at the higher rate3, plus their own National Insurance contributions.
Then, once income reaches your bank account, taxation continues. Most goods and services carry 20% VAT4. Businesses you buy from pay corporation tax (25% on larger profits5), business rates, energy levies, regulatory compliance costs all embedded in the final price.
Think that’s a lot of tax? There’s more…
Then come indirect taxes: council tax, fuel duty, vehicle excise duty, insurance premium tax, stamp duty and the TV licence fee – which itself is a TV tax scam. And if wealth is passed on at death, inheritance tax can apply at 40% above the threshold6!.
Now, we do want to make clear, that the above are headline figures. There are tax thresholds and planning strategies to mitigate these taxes. In due course we will be showing how being an employee is one of the biggest tax scams there are, because there are relatively fewer ways to legally reduce your tax.
However the key fact is that UK tax receipts now amount to roughly 39% of GDP, which is the highest sustained tax burden in decades7. That figure doesn’t mean 39% of your payslip disappears. It means that across the entire UK economic system, nearly two-fifths of all output flows to the state.
You can watch the full Money Gains podcast here.
Accountability of government tax spending compared to tax collection…another scam!
Now comes another question.
If such a large share of productive value flows to the government, is the government accountable to how this tax is spent, in a similar way to how accountable the public are to paying it?
And the answer as we all know is…No!
This isn’t just two-tier. This isn’t just bad bureaucracy. This is a scam. We all know in the UK, if we don’t pay our taxes we will have the HMRC (like the IRS in America) after us for amounts that tend to be in the low hundreds of pounds.
Yet as discussed in the video, if the government wastes tens and hundreds of billions because of budget overruns such as High Speed 2 or shelved infrastructure projects, who holds them accountable? At best, the electorate can replace them at the next General Election. This scam explains why there is rising public debt, strained public services, and visible inefficiencies which fuel the reality that the system extracts tax reliably — but delivers ineffectively because of this accountability scam.
What can we do about it?
The most practical response is not, as tempting as it may be, to stop paying taxes. But to increase your leverage by developing your character and competence so that you can become more independent as a value producer. The more value you can create independently of the state, the less vulnerable you are to tax structures that assume long-term salaried dependency. Economic freedom starts with developing your human resources i.e. your initiative, your proactivity, your ingenuity, your resourcefulness etc.
As part of developing your human resource, you move from passive consumer, dependent on the Establishment and its promises, to active producer. To do this, we need to develop real-world networks of collaboration, rather than relying solely on institutional jobs. When individuals increase their capabilities, capacity, discipline and strategic thinking, they expand the range of choices available to them. There is good reason why many employees are referred to as “wage slaves”…
No system can fully control a population that is conscious, mature, skilled, coordinated, financially literate and psychologically independent. The most powerful response to a system that narrows options is to become the kind of person whose options multiply — economically, intellectually and socially. As a starting point, educate yourself on the Scamtologists the Establishment really are. We will soon be bringing you further details on how we will be bringing conscientious citizens together to lobby the government on a range of issues starting with media corruption. This will form a basis to start building your character, competency and community as we will shortly explain.
References
1OECD Report – Taxing Wages 2025 (United Kingdom)
2UK Government National Insurance Rates
3UK Government Income Tax and Personal Allowance Rates
5UK Government Corporation Tax Rates
6UK Government Inheritance Tax Rates
7House of Common Library – Research Briefing on Tax Statistics Jan 2026
Related articles:
One Voice Is Enough to Start – A Teenager Willing To Stand Up Against Scamtology
The Price Rise Scam — And the Company That Refused to Play Along with Scamtology
Finance Scamtology: How Elon Musk Is Controlled By The Banking Elite
Jeffrey Leigh-Jones – Victim to Scamtologist Predator – Part 1: How The BBC Groomed Jeffrey Leigh-Jones to Become Their Living Sacrifice
Indirect taxes are one of the deepest scams. The focus is so much on income tax that we don’r see the taxes built in everywhere. On alcohol and fuel is an astronomical percentage. yet on everyday purchases it’s there, being paid when the individual is taking the risk. Of course public good services need to be paid for much there is so much hiding of the amount of total tax we pay.
Wow, that is certainly a scam. I’m hating scamtology and living in scamtopia. It is such a sneaky way of rendering ourselves slaves, taxing every which way. Everything has a tax, then they make it so hard to do anything about it when you are so tired working 40 hours. This is a bitter truth, but I am so glad to be receiving it. God bless you for this enriching knowledge.
The devastating scamtology of our taxation system! It’s very revealing how so much fuss is made about tax evasion, yet very little is said about tax wastage. Regardless of how effective it was or it wasn’t, the DOGE initiative certainly exposed how there are some incredibly archaic ways that government operates.
My personal and professional experience of seeing how councils operate has shown me how much is wasted. Then seeing the reality of the Insolvency Service and the BBC took this to a whole new level!
Thank you for this taxation example. This, again, is set up in a very clever way by the Establishment. They highlight certain parts of the truth, such as how much direct tax we have to pay, but the overall percentage of tax being paid remains largely hidden. Seeing figures suggesting that up to 80% of earned income goes to the state is shocking. At the very least, it raises the question of whose interests those who designed this system are truly serving.
This is not sustainable and is harming people. Where is the accountability for the state’s decisions and spending? Especially over the last few years, it has become more common to hear about billions rather than millions, without clear explanations of where this enormous level of government spending comes from.
It’s time for real change.
When taken in isolation, this is a scam for sure. But when it’s seen in the macro, that this is part of a greater network of scams, ie Scamtopia, it is deeply disturbing. How on earth I have believed we live in a democracy is ironically, part of the greater scam. Wow. Thank you to the team for creating this education.
I’m not against paying taxes, but I am against there being no accountability when our tax money is wasted needlessly. When an individual makes a mistake the penalties are harsh, but when government makes a mistake nothing happens! The whole tax system needs to be overhauled and made much simpler so there is more transparency and accountability.
What absolute scammers the establishment are. Across the board as well! The citizenry are being robbed left right and centre through taxation, but then look at the government and local government we get for all the tax they take back! If all that tax was improving people’s lives, aiding their growth and development and making people stronger, healthier, wiser and more able to produce value it could be argued it’s worthwhile. However it’s not, it’s nothing like that. This is something as many people as possible need to learn and be aware of. I think that clip at the end of the article sums it up so well, “so they found the formula; just enough money to survive, just enough time to not completely break, just enough energy to come back tomorrow, but never enough to escape!” Places with the smallest governments and lowest rates of taxation I believe have actually been found to be far more wealthy and successful, like Singapore. The fact that’s not the case everywhere is a scam!
I understand that there are taxes that are necessary, but then there are those that we are scammed out of. I’ve worked for about 40 years, and I dread to think of how much tax I have paid, both direct and indirect.
Thank you for this article, this is valuable information that we all need to be made aware of.
We need this education! 39% tax! This is absolutely diabolical especially for so many people in the UK living below the poverty line or struggling through the living crisis. The waste of our hard earned cash, the lack of accountability, the audacity of the frequency and amount of tax we pay …all points back to another scam!
This was eye‑opening. Most of us never question how the tax system actually works or who it really benefits — we just accept it as unavoidable. Seeing it described as a scam we don’t realise shines a light on how hidden incentives and power protect the wealthy while ordinary people carry the burden. Thank you for exposing this clearly.