You Think You’re Over-Taxed? Wait Until the Taxpayers Are Gone

It has become a national reflex. “We’re taxed too much.” You hear it everywhere; pubs, buses, comment sections. People point to GP delays, collapsing schools, bankrupt councils, and ask, where is it all going? The answer they are handed, by headlines and politicians, is welfare. The lazy. The undeserving. As if the problem is too many people getting help, not too few getting paid. 

But here is the forensic truth. British people pay less tax than most of Western Europe. Less than France, Germany, Denmark, Belgium. And we get less in return. The UK’s tax-to-GDP ratio is around 36 to 38 percent, while France sits at 47 percent, Germany at 48.3 percent, Denmark at 46.9 percent, and Belgium at 53 percent. The issue is not “too much tax”, it is erosion. It is deliberate underfunding dressed up as common sense.

Now layer in what is coming. AI and automation are not science fiction, they are already here. They are replacing jobs in admin, customer service, data entry, delivery, manufacturing, even junior legal and coding roles. By 2050, up to eight million UK jobs could be gone. Not outsourced. Not offshored. Automated. And here is the kicker … AI does not pay tax. It does not pay income tax, National Insurance, council tax, or pension contributions. It replaces working taxpayers, but contributes nothing to the public purse.

The jobs most at risk are not abstract. They are working-class, everyday, essential:

• Data entry clerks

• Shelf fillers and checkout assistants

• Call centre agents

• Cleaners and domestic workers

• Kitchen assistants and waitstaff

• Bookkeepers and payroll clerks

• Secretarial and admin support

• Manufacturing line workers

• Delivery drivers

• Junior legal analysts

• Junior coders

• Tutors for scripted content

These roles are not just jobs. They are the tax base. And they are vanishing.

And here is the part no one seems to want to say out loud. AI does not pay tax. Not income tax, not National Insurance, not council tax. It does not pay into pensions, does not take maternity leave, does not use the bus to get to work. It does not buy lunch from the café downstairs or contribute to local economies. It just replaces the people who did. And when millions of jobs vanish, which will, quietly, efficiently, algorithmically, the tax base shrinks with them. The machines do not pay in, but the displaced still need support. So who picks up the tab? The few who still have jobs. The burden shifts downward, onto the backs of the remaining workers, because you cannot squeeze revenue from a server rack. You cannot fund the NHS with productivity reports. And unless the system changes, we are heading for a future where the lucky few pay for the collapse of the many.

So what happens next? The government says people will “just retrain”. Into what, exactly? The very roles being automated? Pick litter for free? Retraining is a myth when the ladder itself has been pulled up. Entry-level job postings have already dropped 23.4 percent in AI-exposed firms. The stepping stones are disappearing. And only 20 percent of displaced workers successfully retrain across OECD countries. The rest fall through the cracks into Universal Credit, housing support, mental health services. And with fewer taxpayers and no plan to tax the machines, who is going to fund that?

The welfare bill will balloon. Not because people are lazy, but because the system replaced them and left them behind. And the machines that took their jobs? They do not pay in. No income tax. No National Insurance. No pension contributions. The government collects less. And the demand for support rises.

Who pays for the NHS then? Who funds schools that do not crumble? Who keeps the lights on in councils already stripped of 60p in every £1 since 2010?

The burden will fall on those lucky enough to still be working. Because you cannot tax a machine. You cannot squeeze revenue from an algorithm. The UK’s tax system is built around human labour, and it is being hollowed out.

And while workers brace for rising tax burdens, British businesses are already paying less than they used to. Corporation tax was cut from 28 percent in 2010 to just 19 percent by 2017, and though it recently rose to 25 percent, it still sits below many European counterparts. There is no automation levy. No AI contribution scheme. No structural plan to replace the billions lost when machines take over human jobs. The government’s AI strategy focuses on boosting innovation and attracting investment, not protecting displaced workers or rebuilding the tax base. In short, business gets a discount. People get the bill.

And the citizens? They will still be saying we are taxed too much. That it is all wasted on welfare. Until the algorithm replaces their job. And they realise too late… You cannot retrain into a system that has already been automated.

You cannot fix a broken tap if they have taken the wrench. Eventually, millions will be unemployed… Then what?