THE CONSULTATIVE process for tax policy can be a “waste of time”, the president of the CIoT said yesterday.
Anthony Thomas (pictured) was speaking at the president’s reception at the Tate Modern. He said it was “enormous frustrating… spending hours poring over consultation documents on what seems to be thousands of documents flooding out of HM Revenue & Customs… especially when on occasions the consultation is a complete waste of time.”
The decisions had already been made by HMRC, he said. “This is not the way to consult,” he added.
A sensible way forward would be meeting in advance with policy advisors to enable HMRC and professional bodies understand the issues, he said.
In his inaugural speech as president, he denounced the “special relationship” between HMRC and the professional bodies as a “myth”, more akin to that “between the UK and US governments. It is more perceived than real and always favours one side and that side is not ours.”