Tucked away in the Budget papers is a document entitled 'Delivering a new relationship with business — Reducing burdens and helping businesses get it right'. The paper deals with HMRC's laudable attempts to reduce the administrative burdens for business by a claimed £564 million per annum since 2006.
However given the UK tax system and the Government's penchant for more and ever more complex legislation this is like digging a hole in soft sand; for every spadeful you remove two more drop back in.
While large business is generally very appreciative of the risk-based approach measures like the Senior Accounting Officer (SAO) legislation and iXBRL are being foisted on us with little or no consultation or recognition of taxpayers' genuine concerns.
HMRC's view of the SAO legislation was that compliant taxpayers could meet their obligations with little or no additional work but...
