The Use of Tax Expenditures by the Thatcher Governments : 1979 to 1990

Introduction The term ‘tax expenditure’ (TE) was coined in 1967 by Surrey, the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Policy under US President Johnson to cover the special exemptions, exclusions, deductions and other tax benefits that were really methods of providing government assistance. He identified two categories of tax reliefs giving rise to TE. First; relief for personal circumstances or hardship, for example children, disability or old age, and second, reliefs intended to achieve certain economic and social objectives, such as to encourage people to become home owners or to provide pensions.