The Office for Tax Simplification to be abolished

Jun 22, 2023 | Tax

An independent (financial adviser’s) view

This QANGO (as nobody now calls such institutions) was set up to suggest improvements, supposedly simplifications, to our labyrinthine, or, as the Treasury Committee ironically describe it,  ‘overcomplicated and burdensome’ tax system. It was set up by the unlamented George Osborne, and has made many useful suggestions in the last 10 years or so. In his 2011 Budget, the ‘Chancellor accepted some of its recommendations’. But that’s the only vague success that I can find in its brief history of, doubtless, many hundreds of meetings. The problem continues to be that any ‘simplification’ in new tax rules leaves all sorts of complications in its wake, as stuff that happened before is still subject to old rules. We see this time and again with pensions, but it’s true of so much other stuff too. Simplifying anything leaves casualties and casualties are not good politics. So it’s ‘plus ça change…’

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“Rachel Reeves may be forced to raise taxes”

“Rachel Reeves may be forced to raise taxes”

Why did she/they (in the old sense) think that tinkering around with IHT and CGT would be enough to sort out the NHS; and the potholes; and…and the list goes on. My guess is  that they asked the Treasury for a list of anything not involving income tax that they could get away with lightly, although they should already have learned from the winter fuel stuff that all publicity is not good publicity.