The latest plans for simplify the tax regime include some positive moves including talk of reviewing the rules for the basic corporation tax/income tax computation but there are still major bugbears such as the troubled RTI introduction, says Bill Dodwell, head of tax policy at Deloitte
The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) has just produced its final report on the competitiveness of the UK’s tax administration. The background comes from the World Bank’s Paying Taxes report. The Bank looks at a hypothetical business and considers its total tax contribution; the time taken to comply with tax obligations and the number of tax payments.
The UK actually does remarkably well in the international rankings – coming 14th out of 189 countries. It ranks third amongst G20 countries, beaten only by Canada and Saudi Arabia.
How could we do better, though? OTS tax director John Whiting helpfully recommends the ‘discovery of immense quantities of oil’, which would mean we could dispense with many complicated taxes. However, should this not be possible, there are tax recommendations as well.
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