Budgets rarely shift the dial and the lack of long-term coherent strategy just leaves tax advisers and their clients picking up the pieces, says Chris Denning, partner at MHA
Every year for the last three decades at every Budget as a tax professional I have tried to explain to my clients what is likely to happen when the chancellor stands at the despatch box.
I’d like to think I got my predictions right most of the time but my point is really that this is a huge commitment in terms of time and money. And to what end? A little bit of tinkering there, a few cheap headlines there and then quickly forgotten about apart from tax advisors and their clients who are having to deal with the fallout. It rarely shifts the dial and we drift for another 12 months.
There is no vision, no long-term planning horizon. After all businesses make investments over periods measured in years and decades, while UK tax policy is too often debated on a horizon measured in months.
