As a country our tax legislation is vast, complicated and growing; with each successive government the size of the UK tax code grows. A simpler, clearer and lighter tax system which is more understandable would close loopholes, encourage business growth and be easier to implement.
Tolley’s Tax Guide is now so long that the world’s fastest speaker would take about 5 days to get through it.
Even the individual guides for Income Tax, Corporation Tax and Capital Gains Tax are each longer than War and Peace. All three, along with the Inheritance Tax guide, show sharp increases in their length in recent years. The handbook of tax legislation has doubled in length to 11,520 pages since 1997, making it one of the longest in the world.
Why Reform Taxes?
Ordinary taxpayers are often not aware of how much tax they are actually paying and are unable to navigate the legislation if they want to find out. Patchwork solutions over the years have led to an array of reliefs and concessions that only people with greater resources are able to take advantage of.
- Small businesses need to fund an army of accountants and lawyers to navigate the system.
- Bureaucrats are needed to monitor the rules which diverts taxpayer money from other purposes.
- People with new commercial ideas are discouraged from starting new businesses
What Do We Propose?
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Our full proposal for tax simplification can is set out by The 2020 Tax Commission; a joint project between the TaxPayers' Alliance and the Institute of Directors. The core of the proposal is a cut in marginal tax rates and an increase in personal allowances, the removal of 'double taxes' like stamp duty and inheritance tax, The proposal is transparent, simple and fair while also being able to pay for all the essentials of state spending.