Reader feedback: tax after the coronavirus

I read with interest the article by Heather Self (‘Self’s assessment: Tax after covid (again)’, Tax Journal, 12 March) about reform of the taxation of income from work, which as she points out was one of the tax reform areas that attracted the Treasury Committee’s attention during our tax after coronavirus inquiry.

I very much welcome her appreciative and perceptive comments on our report. However, she is wrong to say that we called for a commission. The evidence we took on the benefits of tax commissions did not convince us and, whilst the Committee did not rule out the idea, we concluded that there is not currently a need for a tax commission. We also concluded that the government has the ability to reform taxes by agreeing with our proposal for a tax strategy and by following its own tax policy-making process. 

Rt Hon Mel Stride MP, chair of the Treasury Committee