CIoT mounts attack on tax rewrite project

Efforts by the government to rewrite complex corporate tax legislation in plain English have been attacked by the CIoT, who have described the project as risky.

The professional body says the rewrite will create new opportunities for widespread avoidance and are calling on the government and HM Revenue & Customs to scale back the project, the Financila Times reports.

'We do not assert that legislation is perfect but this process can be expected to worsen rather than improve it,' the CIoT said, adding that the project could 'open opportunities for large-scale tax avoidance as well as pitfalls for innocent taxpayers'.

The draft of the rewritten legislation was published on Friday and HMRC has said that it is not realistic to stop or scale back the project at this stage. The final version of the legislation is due in a year's time.

The rewrite project was initiated by Kenneth Clarke, the then chancellor, in 1996.

HMRC maintains that the rewrite will save the department £25m a year as there will be fewer misunderstandings.

Further reading:

Read the draft legislation here

Visit the CIOT here