The new Chartered Institute of Taxation president, John Preston, has called on whichever government is elected on 8 June to be ‘brave on tax simplification’.

In his inaugural speech, he noted the previous administration had decided against going ahead with some reforms proposed by the Office of Tax Simplification because they were ‘politically unacceptable’. His personal view was that the government ‘may be underestimating what the population may be prepared …

HMRC’s tax receipts rose to £567bn for the year to March 2017. This is an increase of £33bn compared with the previous year, said Blick Rothenberg.

These statistics published by HMRC indicate the rise is equivalent to 6.2% with self-assessment income tax, National Insurance and corporation …

Global tax reforms and sustained weak economic growth continue to disrupt the tax landscape, driving countries to introduce new or improved business incentives to compete. This is according to the EY Outlook for Global Tax Policy in 2017. See here.

It stated the long-term trend for countries to pursue a low-rate, broad-base business tax strategy would remain strong in 2017. However, implementation of the G20 and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) recommendations …