article_snippet: The IFS said the Coalition's changes represented a 'missed opportunity to improve the tax system', with little attempt to address 'fundamental structural deficiencies'.
article_snippet: Several of the Coalition's changes have increased 'unwelcome distortions' in the tax system, the think-tank added.
article_snippet: the think-tank said it was difficult to find a 'good economic reason' for lifting lower-paid workers out of income tax while leaving National Insurance thresholds
article_snippet: largely untouched – warning it was an 'absurdity' that the two taxes were not integrated.
article_snippet: The study praised last year's stamp duty reforms.
article_snippet: But The study warned that council tax had been allowed to get 'ever more out of date', with bands in England and Scotland based on 1991 property prices.
article_snippet: The study added that areas such as fuel duties and business rates had seen 'ad hoc, often temporary, announcements overtaking each other'.
article_snippet: Authors Stuart Adam and Barra Roantree said there was a 'better way to make tax policy'.
article_snippet: The threshold is also the starting point at which families with a relatively high earner start to lose families with a relatively high earner child benefit payments.
article_snippet: Prime Minister David Cameron said this week that too many people were now paying a tax that was 'only ever meant for the better off'.