The UK tax burden: 27%, 34% or 38%?

Britain's central government collects most taxes itself, so the World Bank's central-government-only measure already reaches 27% of GDP; the OECD adds compulsory national-insurance contributions and local taxes to print 34.4%. The IMF's 38.3% counts all general-government revenue including non-tax income — three widening circles around the same state, not three estimates of one number.