The Ministry of Tax was a speculative project as part of Communicating Tax a project by Rebecca Bramall and Liam Stanley. The project examined the government’s Annual Tax Summary (ATS), a personalised tax and spending statement sent to income taxpayers, and explored alternative ways of reporting on tax and public spending.
Alongside David Simms and Oliver Smith I created a physical installation and website in the London College of Communication as part of the London Design Festival 2018. The work involved using the government styling system to make a website that created an Annual Tax Summary based on an income. The Welfare slice of the tax summary was investigated by using a JavaScript D3 diagram to include a speculative break down of the tax, based on researched data. The website was designed to allow an Annual Tax Summary to be printed, a specialised version of the website was used in the exhibition performance.
On the opening night of the London Design Festival a Ministry of Tax office was opened at London College of Communication. People were invited to provide their salary and physical, bound copy of their Annual Tax Summary was created, using laser cut rubber stamps to provide an analogue version of the web based D3 data.