Most people, including wealthier households, believe that the tax system is unfair, according to a new poll for the TUC.

Conducted by YouGov, the survey found that 75 per cent of people agreed that it was “too easy for very rich people to get out of paying a fair level of tax” with 43 per cent saying that they strongly agreed with the statement. Among wealthier households earning £100,000 or more - although this was a relatively small section of the sample - some 52 per cent agreed that it was too easy for the rich to avoid paying a fair rate of tax.

Just seven per cent agreed that “Britain’s tax system gets the balance right between the amount of tax paid by the rich, the poor and those in the middle”. Among wealthy households, 13 per cent believed that the balance was right.

Nearly seven out of ten people - 69 per cent - agreed that it was too easy for large companies to avoid paying some tax and 57 per cent told the survey that the Government was wrong to reduce the tax on large businesses.

YouGov asked a weighted sample of just over 2,100 people about their attitudes to tax ahead of a TUC seminar today which is part of a campaign by the union organisation for “tax justice”. The TUC has hit back at the business lobby which is calling for reduced taxes by producing analysis of company accounts showing that many businesses are able to defer large parts of their tax bills.

Brendan Barber, TUC general secretary, said: “An astonishingly large majority of people think the tax system is unfair and that it is too easy for big companies and the well-off to get out of paying fair taxes. The public knows that every pound the rich do not pay has to be made up by ordinary people’s taxes or by cuts in public services.

“Creating a fairer tax system does not mean a higher tax bill for ordinary workers. Instead, clamping down on tax avoidance and closing the loopholes enjoyed by the super rich will put extra revenue into ordinary people’s pockets or pay for our hard-pressed public services.”

But John Cridland, deputy director general of the CBI, said: “Last year, the amount UK businesses paid in tax ran to almost £150 billion - equivalent to the NHS budget one and a half times over and twice the education budget. Since new taxes were introduced in this year’s Budget, firms are paying an additional £4 billion. So, let’s dispel the notion once and for all that business is ‘getting out of’ paying its way on tax’.

“Recent research showed 92 per cent of any increase in corporation tax is passed onto workers in lower wages and hits the economy through less investment and reduced productivity. There’s no point in pretending we don’t all feel the impact of higher business tax.

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