UK Inland Revenue's Tax Rewrite Project To Be Monitored By New Joint Committee

Mandy Robinson, Tax-news.com, London

19 January 2001

Earlier this week Tax-news.com reported on a new bill, produced by the UK Inland Revenue, which has rewritten the current legislation on capital allowances as part of the Revenue's Tax Law Rewrite initiative to modernise and clarify UK direct tax law. It has now been revealed that the Rewrite project is to get its own House of Commons select committee which will monitor and review its progress.

On Monday this week, paymaster general Dawn Primarolo announced that the new Joint Committee on Tax Simplification Bills would provide for 'proper parliamentary scrutiny' of the project's future proposed bills. Members of the new committee will be made up of six members of the House of Lords and seven from the House of Commons. Those named so far include Ms Primarolo herself and former Tory chancellor Kenneth Clarke. It is expected that Lord Geoffrey Howe, a long-time advocate of clarifying the UK tax system, will be a part of the select group also but this has yet to be confirmed.

The Tax Law Rewrite initiative is to construct a more logical framework for UK tax laws via the use of plain language with the emphasis on simplifying guidelines with minor policy changes. Established in 1996, the Rewrite initiative has published ten Exposure Drafts and two Technical Discussion Documents. Having finalised the text of the Capital Allowances Bill, the project is now rewriting five areas of income tax law: trading income, savings and investment income, employment income, property income and foreign income.

Already some controversy is emerging from the announcement as Tory MP John Bercow disagreed with the decision to include a minister on the committee. However, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) says it fully supports the committee by stating: 'The Institute's Tax Faculty welcomes the creation of a House of Commons and House of Lords joint committee to consider the bills resulting from the [rewrite] project. The Lords have considerable tax and business experience and the tax experts hope this step marks the Lords' greater involvement in tax issues.'

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