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The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) has refreshed its drive for user-friendly tax policies, by counselling the government on the key principles for avoiding complexity.
New advice from the independent Treasury body urges ministers and civil servants to ensure each proposed tax measure meets policy aims, has careful focus and accurate design, and is maintained properly.
The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) has refreshed its drive for user-friendly tax policies, by counselling the government on the key principles for avoiding complexity.
New advice from the independent Treasury body urges ministers and civil servants to ensure each proposed tax measure meets policy aims, has careful focus and accurate design, and is maintained properly.
The OTS has also published a revised version of its complexity index, which judges a particular tax or set of rules based on ten factors, including the amount of exemptions and reliefs, the number of pages of legislation, the intricacy of HMRC guidance, and the number of taxpayers affected.
“We can’t have a simple tax system – life is complex and the tax system will reflect that – but we can have a simpler one,” said the office’s tax director, John Whiting.
“We use a range of factors to assess complexity, which we think give a good representative result, though we accept people will have their own views on areas of the code.”
Whiting called on interested parties to let the OTS know what they believe to be the most complicated tax area, which will be added to the rating index if not already there.
