Need to know: tax

Labour

Tax rates: stay level but a strong economy will bring in greater tax revenue since people will earn more

Cuts: the Gershon review identified £21.5 billion in civil service costs that could be saved

Borrowing: will be back on track due to the increase in tax revenue

Spending: cuts and tax revenue increases will continue to swell NHS and education spending

What the experts say: Labour will raise taxes because the Treasury has overestimated the effect of raised income by £11bn. 'Significant tax increases came straight after the 1997 and 2001 elections,' says Carl Emmerson from the Institute for Fiscal Studies

Conservative

Tax rates: will cut taxes by £4bn annually. Of this £1.3bn will go to halve council tax bills in households with those aged 65 years and over. No hint yet on who will get the remaining £2.7bn

Cuts: will build on Labour's Gershon savings of £21.5bn with an extra £13.5bn from extra civil service cuts and by scrapping the New Deal

Borrowing: will be cut by £8bn

Spending: will be increased on front-line services, but at a rate of 1 per cent a year less than Labour plans

What the experts say: IFS believes the tax cuts can work since lower borrowing means less debt servicing. Other parties claim the Tories' savings will adversely affect services

Liberal Democrat

Tax: increases from 41 per cent to

50 per cent for those paid more than £100,000, raising £27bn in next term. Council tax to be replaced with local income tax, cutting tax by £11bn

Cuts: will total £5bn per year by ending DTI subsidies, scrapping new child trust fund and dropping ID cards

Borrowing: similar to Labour's plans

Spending: £42bn over the next parliament, funded by cuts and increased tax, for end to tuition fees, free personal care for elderly, 21,000 primary teachers and a rise in pensions.

What the experts say: same 'overestimated' £11bn tax revenue problem as Labour, plus uncertainty as to whether those hit by 50 per cent tax rate will make efforts to dodge it

Winners and losers

Pensioners: major gains for them from Lib Dem and Conservative pledges

Big government: under every party's plans, civil servants will be swelling the ranks of the unemployed

... and the voters?

Party paranoia notwithstanding, polls show that tax increases are more popular than tax cuts. But after a week of talking taxes everyone is flat-lining in the polls. Interestingly, the Tories are pledging to cut only £4bn in taxes, not the £8bn they promised in 1991. But their economic talk still sounds more like a stick with which to beat Labour than that of a convincing government-in-waiting