Lib Dems call for Budgets to be audited.

The Liberal Democrats have called for every annual government Budget to be independently audited by accountants.

A summary of their assessment of the impact of government measures will then be sent out to every taxpayer with their tax return.

The new proposal was put to the party at the conference in Bournemouth by Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Matthew Taylor.

He attacked the government’s ‘stealth’ taxes, saying the only way to stop governments using them was a proper audit so people know what is being taken by the government and from where.

The move is part of a drive by leader Charles Kennedy – pictured above launching the conference – for ‘transparency’ on tax.

He said that people were seeing through ‘the increasingly phoney Dutch auction on income tax between Labour and Tories’.

People would support higher taxes if they could see they’ve been well spent. The Liberal Democrats committed themselves to lowering the ten pence tax rate to nought taking 1.4 million people on low incomes out of tax altogether.

They propose a new 50 pence tax in the pound top rate of income tax kicking in at £100,000 a year.