Dodwell: soft law and corporate tax strategy

The volume of UK tax law is often criticised as every year another 600 pages are added to the tax code, but increased transparency with the publication of company tax strategies is a welcome development. Bill Dodwell, partner and head of tax policy at Deloitte considers the growing impact of so-called soft law on taxpayer behaviour at a corporate level 

Soft law aims to encourage taxpayers down, or away from, a particular path. The sanctions are typically adverse publicity, rather than a penalty or finding that arrangements achieve a different effect to that intended. One good example of soft law is the Banking Code, which is theoretically voluntary, although all but a handful of banks have in fact signed up.

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