This week's opinion

I had the pleasure of attending the CIOT’s annual parliamentary reception at the House of Commons last week. It was good to hear the Financial Secretary to the Treasury Mel Stride speak positively of the importance of tax professionals. Given the nature of the event he was hardly likely to launch into a tirade but the fact that he tweeted afterwards saying the CIOT and by extension the professional as a whole is ‘vital in helping the Treasury and HMRC getting tax right’ shows that the relationship between the profession and government is in a better place that it was a few years ago. This can only be good for tax policy.

In his introductory remarks CIOT president Ray McCann raised an issue on which I have commented before in these pages – the need for discretion in the tax system to prevent...