Tax Simplification: A Modest Proposal
September 12, 2016There’s to be another Autumn Statement at the end of November. Oh joy.
Here’s an idea. Stop having an annual Finance Bill, an annual Budget, and an annual Autumn Statement. Replace them with some kind of “state of the union” style speech telling us how we’re doing (and there goes the Autumn Statement), a Financial Statement – a set of annual accounts and details of routine uprating of allowances etc (and there goes the Budget), and, best of all, a Tax Bill that the Chancellor has to bid for space for alongside all the other bids for Parliamentary time that are out there, so the temptation to mess with the edges is abolished along with the Finance Bill.
Seriously. Just stop letting Treasury and HMRC policy wonks float their favourite ideas as “budget starters” and do away with the thousand page Finance Bills. Maybe you’d end up with a Tax Bill about every year anyway… and maybe you wouldn’t. A moratorium on tax changes till after Brexit? How about it?
The next #AutumnStatement will take place on 23 November 2016 https://t.co/YhBzWmjDNlpic.twitter.com/YvOuLyhFOW
— HM Treasury (@hmtreasury) 8 September 2016
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