Chancellor tackles ‘spaghetti bowl’ tax system
By Rebecca Burns
The chancellor of the exchequer has launched a new body that aims to simplify the tax system.
The Office for Tax Simplification (OTS) is intended to make the current 11,000 page tax code easier for individuals and businesses to navigate.
Chancellor George Osborne said he has a “distant dream that people might actually understand tax laws that they are being asked to comply with”.
He described the current tax system as “a spaghetti bowl of tax exemptions and reliefs”.
The body has been tasked with writing two reports in the next year on tax relief and business taxes, reviewing some 400 existing reliefs to see where streamlining is possible.
An unpaid, two-man board has been appointed to oversee the reforms.
Michael Jack, financial secretary to the Treasury in John Major’s government, is chair of the OTS and John Whiting, a former tax partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, is the new tax director.
The board will be based in the Treasury but will be able to look further afield for expert tax advice.
Exchequer secretary David Gauke said: “The tax system created by the previous government was overly complex and has made the tax affairs of millions of families and businesses across the UK extremely complicated.
“We need to reduce the complexities in our tax system and the coalition is committed to delivering that goal.
“The Office for Tax Simplification will provide important advice that will help inform us in making the right reforms to the tax system that will help to pave the way to bringing more international business to the UK, which will give our economy the boost it so urgently needs in the years ahead.”
The OTS will report its findings to the chancellor in time for the budget next spring.
