In a response to the Competitiveness Review being conducted by the Treasury’s Office of Tax Simplification, the CLLS committee said it suspected there had been occasions when HM Revenue & Customs had underestimated difficulties with proposals when briefing Government ministers, “perhaps concerned that if they miss their slot in the Finance Bill their measures may be lost altogether”.
At other times, the committee argued that policy had been driven from the political level with HMRC “left to pick up the pieces”.
Policymakers had made “great strides” in improving the administration of corporation tax, but elsewhere too much legislation was being “produced in haste and then repented over at leisure”.
Committee chairman Simon Yates, a partner with Travers Smith, said an independent body should be created with the power to veto “insufficiently developed” tax legislation.
“The sense of policy confusion, especially when contributed to by frequent significant change after announcement, is very damaging to the UK as it undermines the objectives of delivering predictability and certainty.”
The CLLS represents around 14,000 City lawyers, including those who work for large international practices.
