Can you imagine life, a long time ago? Before your teacher was born.
Before your great-great-great-grandparents were born.
Much, much further back in time.
To the age of woolly mammoths, sabre-tooth tigers and cavemen.
Way back then, it was every man and woman and child for themselves.
You and your family would have found life very difficult,
With no teachers to teach you No doctors to care for you if you got hurt,
No police officers to keep the streets safe from ravenous beasts.
And come to think of it - no streets!
But times moved on. Very slowly things changed.
People started to work together They grew crops together.
Built villages together. Then, later still, they built towns and cities,
Supporting each other as communities developed,
with schools and hospitals; teachers and doctors; clean water to drink and proper roads.
And these things all had one thing in common. They all cost money – and lots of it!
And that's where taxes come in.
Taxes are the money that everyone pays towards the important things that make society work
When you have a job and earn money you pay some of that money back to the government as tax.
And if you run a business, some of the profit the business makes is also given to the government as tax.
Some of the things you buy also have tax included in the price.
All this money is used to pay for the things that are important, to you and your family,
your local community and the country.
Kings and Emperors,
Queens and Governments.
Over the centuries, they've all used taxes to bring in the
money they need, to keep people safe and healthy, educated and entertained.
Now, we've got to admit that some of these taxes in the past were a bit...
Well, there's only one word for it ...strange!
The Egyptian Pharaohs introduced a tax on cooking oil.
Two hundred years ago in the UK, there was a tax on windows.
Some people bricked up their windows to avoid paying the tax.
And you can still see some of those houses. Is there a house like that near you?
And what about the tax on hats introduced in 1784, which, if you didn't pay it, could be punishable by death.
Today we have lots of different taxes. Paid by lots of different people.
So that our government has enough money for all the different things that our society needs to work properly.
Now, let's look at who pays taxes And how that money is spent.
Let's start with YOU.
Do you pay taxes? Hands up if you think that you do.
Well done if you put your hand up Because some of the things you might buy
- chocolate, pens and games for example - have an amount of tax included in the price you pay.
It's called Value Added Tax or V.A.T.
People who work also have to give part of the money they earn to the government as tax
And businesses, shops, factories and banks all pay tax too.
All these taxes are collected by us.
We’re called Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs
And the amount we collect adds up to a huge amount of money.
In fact, it's more than £500 billion each year. And if you're wondering what
that number looks like it's £500...000...000...000.
You can think of tax as an absolutely enormous piggy-bank.
That everyone pays a bit of money into to help everyone in the country.
When you're older and you get a job or maybe even start your own business.
The taxes you'll pay then will all be added into this piggy-bank.
Now, maybe you're thinking it's not fair that people have to pay tax.
But think about all the things that would disappear if we didn't have taxes,
your schools and your teachers,
hospitals and ambulances,
doctors and nurses,
libraries, museums,
the people who collect our rubbish and keep our streets clean,
and the police officers and firefighters who keep us safe.
So now you can see how important taxes are.
And how they pay for many of the essential things in our lives.
Things that we sometimes take for granted.
To keep our country safe To provide essential services for your local community.
And to make life better for your family and for you
Thanks for listening.