“Tax simplification policies needed from next govt”

Jun 24, 2024 | Tax

An independent (financial adviser’s) view

One of the Truss Financial Event measures which has yet to be reversed is Kwasi’s abolition of the Office of Tax Simplification. That’s certainly not because it’s simple enough already, as we have one of the world’s most complex tax systems; not least because of successive governments’ ‘pledges’ not to increase the holy trinity of income tax, NI and VAT. As a result, all they can do to tinker around with what we already have, adding a knob here and a whistle there to bring in a few extra bob and hope that no-one notices. And so more and more layers of complexity are added, making the whole thing a nightmare to administer and our exams even more difficult (spare a thought!). Will anyone be brave enough to do some root and branch reform? Well, maybe someone with a big enough majority in parliament…

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“HMRC: ‘digitalising tax process could close gap’”

“HMRC: ‘digitalising tax process could close gap’”

You, like a majority of both taxpayers and accountants, may have been sweating and cursing over a keyboard last week to submit a last-minute tax return. Many by the end of that accursed process will have been shouting ‘bring back paper!’, a vain and pointless hope, I’m afraid.