in praise of Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs!

[Flying Dodo]

Last week the Office of Tax Simplification published a list of 1,042 tax reliefs that were going to be reviewed in the "interests of simplification". 74 of these are being looked at in depth now, with a further 75 at a later stage, whilst the other 883 are unlikely to be reviewed.

The 74 key reliefs consist of EIS, VCT and film tax reliefs, CGT on private residences, various aspects of life assurance taxation, some parts of Inheritance tax and a whole variety of obscure reliefs which I won't bore you with.

One of their key criteria is reviewing reliefs which benefit a small number of taxpayers but which may create distortions in the tax system, or which are complex to operate. They've said the cost of the tax avoided by the reliefs won't be the key driver.

(Victor Meldrew mode)
I don't believe it!

A bit of thread revivial.

The OTS have just published their recommendations. The most important news is that they're saying the Bike to Work scheme should continue. The bad news is that the 6 breakfasts a year that an employer can provide tax free should be abolished.

Although I suppose I should also mention the other possible major suggestions, such as merging income tax & NI; P11d benefits are reviewed so that tax/NI is consistently applied; that Inheritance tax is properly reviewed; removal of indexation relief for company capital gains, and some other minor things.

As with all things, they're saying the Government should look into these matters from next year.