28 Mar 2011
Treasury Committee report calls for more assistance on tax policy making
The issue of how tax policy should be formulated has been attracting a lot of attention recently. There are common themes in the Treasury Committee's Report with those contained in the proposals of the Exchequer Secretary on tax policy and in the recently published recommendations of the Office of Tax Simplification.
Elliot Weston, corporate tax partner, Lawrence Graham, said: "The report's recommendations that tax policy should provide certainty, stability and be practicable are likely to be picked up in the Budget when the Government publishes its policy statement on a framework for tax consultation.
"However, the Treasury Committee has admitted in this report that it needs to be better briefed on changes to the tax law and that there needs to be more engagement between tax professionals and MPs to allow proper debate on finance bills.
"The report suggests a possible solution would be a specialised unit to provide MPs with technical support, akin to the Congressional Budget Office in the US.
Most tax professionals would agree that more thorough parliamentary scrutiny of tax legislation would help produce a better tax system, but there will be scepticism that the resources and political will exist to give the Treasury Committee the wider role it seeks."