Basil Sabine
Basil Sabine OBE, MA, FTII, who passed away recently at the age of 88, was a leading character in the tax profession during a working life that spanned several generations.
His first career was in the Inland Revenue, where he was a District Inspector for 35 years. His time in that occupation is evidenced by at least two tax cases that bear his name.
Basil Sabine
Basil Sabine OBE, MA, FTII, who passed away recently at the age of 88, was a leading character in the tax profession during a working life that spanned several generations.
His first career was in the Inland Revenue, where he was a District Inspector for 35 years. His time in that occupation is evidenced by at least two tax cases that bear his name.
However, it is as perhaps the premier tax historian of his day that Basil will be most remembered. He wrote his first book on the history of income tax in 1966, and since then wrote a further 15 books on various aspects of taxation, including tax investigations.
After leaving the Revenue, Basil spent some time in the accountancy profession, initially with what was then Deloittes, and latterly as a consultant to Booth Ainsworth. He also found time to be Inspector of Income Tax to the Isle of Man government, and acted as a General Commissioner to that body in later years.
However, Basil was far more than a brilliant tax mind. He was a man of wide interests, and his daily swim until very late in life was legendary.
Basil will be sadly missed by all his professional and other friends. He was the quintessential English gentleman, and his creativity and integrity will be irreplaceable. We shall not meet someone of his ilk again.
John Newth
Sandler Report
The Sandler Report on 'Medium and Long-Term Retail Savings in the United Kingdom', published on 9 July 2002, contained a number of recommendations for changes in the tax rules on various savings and investment products. The report commented that tax-based savings incentives do little to increase the overall level of savings and should be avoided in future. The main aim should rather be to make schemes simple to understand.
Life insurance
The report recommended that the qualifying life policy régime should be abolished, with the result that all new life savings policies would then be taxed in the same way (with special tax treatment still applying to pure protection policies). It further suggested the abolition of the five per cent tax-deferred withdrawal rule for life policies (section 546, Taxes Act 1988), which it considered regressive.
Investment trusts, etc.
The report recommended that the Government introduce an exemption from stamp duty reserve tax for investment trust companies within individual pension accounts to match the present exemption for unit trusts and open ended investment companies. It also said that the VAT exemption for investment fund management fees should be extended to investment trusts.
Individual savings accounts
The maxi/mini distinction should be reviewed, as mini individual savings accounts are likely to prove an unnecessarily complex option, should the polarisation rules, which govern sales of mixed products, be abolished.
Pensions
The report's main recommendations in respect of pensions follow:
* the Government should reduce the number of different régimes for pensions tax;
* the tax system should seek to limit either contributions to pensions or the benefits paid out, but not both;
* the rules for individual pension accounts should be changed to allow non-life companies to compete in the pensions market;
* the VAT exemption for pension fund management fees should be extended to non-life companies.
The full report is available from the Public Enquiry Unit, HM Treasury, tel: 020 7270 4558, and also from www.hm-treasury.gov.uk.