Chancellor urged to 'overhaul tax policy'

04 Oct 2016

Ahead of his first Autumn Statement speech on 23 November, Chancellor Philip Hammond has been urged to ‘overhaul the way tax policy is made in the UK’.

In an open letter to the Chancellor, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), Institute for Government (IFG) and the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) call for significant changes to be made to the UK’s tax system in order to ‘simplify the making of tax policy’.

Such changes proposed within the letter include returning to a single annual fiscal event to prevent Autumn Statements from becoming second Budgets, beginning the consultation process for tax changes at an earlier stage and extending the ‘roadmap’ approach to taxation.

The letter also outlines the need to ‘prepare the ground’ for future policy changes and establish clear guiding principles and priorities for the UK’s tax system.

Paul Johnson, Director of the IFS, stated: ‘The current system for tax policy making is not fit for purpose. Too many changes are sprung on the country in too many fiscal events with too little sense of direction, consultation or evaluation.’