New CIOT president John Preston has used his inaugural speech to call on whichever government is elected on 8 June to be prepared to be ‘brave’ on tax simplification.
New CIOT president John Preston has used his inaugural speech to call on whichever government is elected on 8 June to be prepared to be ‘brave’ on tax simplification. Regretting that a number of reforms recommended by the OTS have been declined as politically unacceptable, Preston expressed his personal view that the government ‘may be underestimating what the population may be prepared to consider if the matter was properly explained to them’.
The new president floated the idea of a commonly agreed baseline of standards of behaviour for tax professionals internationally. A broad principle – such as ‘no tax planning should rely for its effectiveness on a revenue authority having less than full facts’ – might be widely acceptable. While acknowledging that UK rules on professional conduct in relation to taxation might not be appropriate ‘in their entirety’ in other countries, Preston wonders whether there is scope for ‘some minimum agreed standards of behaviour that apply everywhere’.
On making tax digital, the CIOT will continue to work with HMRC on areas of concern, especially in relation to the impact of the changes on small businesses. This forms part of one of the CIOT’s key roles, ‘to ensure that tax policy and administration in the UK is as realistic and workable as possible’.
Preston also criticised government for not doing enough to help taxpayers on low incomes understand and engage with the tax system. Praising the work of the institute’s low incomes tax reform group, he said: ‘If the government continues to maintain a complicated tax system, surely it has an obligation to ensure that it explains it properly to those least able to deal with it’.
New CIOT president John Preston has used his inaugural speech to call on whichever government is elected on 8 June to be prepared to be ‘brave’ on tax simplification.
New CIOT president John Preston has used his inaugural speech to call on whichever government is elected on 8 June to be prepared to be ‘brave’ on tax simplification. Regretting that a number of reforms recommended by the OTS have been declined as politically unacceptable, Preston expressed his personal view that the government ‘may be underestimating what the population may be prepared to consider if the matter was properly explained to them’.
The new president floated the idea of a commonly agreed baseline of standards of behaviour for tax professionals internationally. A broad principle – such as ‘no tax planning should rely for its effectiveness on a revenue authority having less than full facts’ – might be widely acceptable. While acknowledging that UK rules on professional conduct in relation to taxation might not be appropriate ‘in their entirety’ in other countries, Preston wonders whether there is scope for ‘some minimum agreed standards of behaviour that apply everywhere’.
On making tax digital, the CIOT will continue to work with HMRC on areas of concern, especially in relation to the impact of the changes on small businesses. This forms part of one of the CIOT’s key roles, ‘to ensure that tax policy and administration in the UK is as realistic and workable as possible’.
Preston also criticised government for not doing enough to help taxpayers on low incomes understand and engage with the tax system. Praising the work of the institute’s low incomes tax reform group, he said: ‘If the government continues to maintain a complicated tax system, surely it has an obligation to ensure that it explains it properly to those least able to deal with it’.
