Revised tax law to enter statute book
A second major piece of tax law revision covering personal income and pensions is on its way into the statute book.
Link: Tax Rewrite body looks at earnings and pensions
The Tax Law Rewrite Committee has approves a Bill under the rewrite project initiated by former Tory Chancellor Lord Howe.
In a report the committee, now chaired by one of his successors, former chancellor Ken Clarke, reported the proposed legislation was ‘a welcome clarification of the existing law and will be easier to use and more accessible to parliament, the judiciary, informed professionals and business people’.
The proposed new legislation incorporates some widely-applying extra-statutory concessions and a definition of what are ‘earnings’ – abolishing the schedules and case system – and covers among many other matters the operation of approved share incentive schemes and the treatment of benefits in kind.
The Bill now faces the same parliamentary processes as other legislation, but can expect a speedy passage as being non-controversial.
It does not purport to improve or reform, matters properly left to annual Finance Bills.
The first rewrite Act covered capital taxation and was passed two years ago.