MPs to give tax bill the green light
The Commons is poised to give its formal stamp of approval to the first of a series of major tax rewrite bills.
MPs are expected on Thursday next week to push the Capital Allowances Bill, the first to emerge from the re-write process chaired by former Tory chancellor Lord Howe, through all its remaining stages.
The rubber-stamping followed a report from the Joint Committee on Tax Simplification Bills, which approved the legislation, without making amendments.
The committee declared the new Bill to be a ‘welcome clarification of the existing law, which will be of value to Parliament, the judiciary, informed professionals and business people and other users of the legislation’.
MPs and peers found that it contained only minor changes and ‘is a valuable process which should be extended to other branches of tax law’.
Chaired by former Tory Chancellor Ken Clarke, the committee held just three sittings and took evidence from the Special Committee of Tax Law Consultative Bodies and the Inland Revenue Tax Law Rewrite Project Team.
The committee concentrated on codification and on using plainer English in the rewriting process, but has called for their name to be changed to ‘Joint Rewrite Committee’, so that they can agree on policy changes in future.
Future bills will cover Income Tax, Corporation Tax, Capital Gains, Stamp Duties, Inheritance Tax and Management.
Links
Accountant gives new tax Bill thumbs up
MPs set up new tax law rewrite group
Commons body to monitor tax rewrite