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Consultations & legislation
Issued: 27 May 2011
Open date: 27 May 2011
Close date: 31 August 2011
In Budget 2011, the Chancellor announced his decision to abolish 43 tax reliefs. This followed the independent Office of Tax Simplification’s (OTS) March 2011 report reviewing the number and complexity of tax reliefs in the UK tax system.
A consultation ran from 27 May 2011 to 31 August 2011 seeking additional evidence on the impacts of removing 36 of these reliefs, and comments on the transitional arrangements that might help to minimise these impacts.
Below you can access further background material on the consultation:
The Government received 78 responses from individuals, businesses and representative bodies. A wide range of arguments were presented for either retaining or delaying the repeal of 22 of the 36 reliefs. These arguments were considered and weighed against the Government’s overall objective to simplify the tax system.
On 6 December 2011, the Government published its response to its “Consultation on the abolition of 36 tax reliefs” document. This can be found below. In addition to a summary of consultation responses, this document sets out the Government’s final decisions which are to:
In addition, in the process of instructing Parliamentary Counsel, a further 3 provisions were identified as redundant and will be subsequently abolished.
Draft clauses published on 6 December will be available for consultation until 10 February 2012. Technical responses should be sent to the HMRC policy contact listed on the relevant accompanying Tax Information and Impact Note.
In Budget 2011, the Chancellor announced his decision to abolish 43 tax reliefs. This followed the independent Office of Tax Simplification’s (OTS) March 2011 report reviewing the number and complexity of tax reliefs in the UK tax system.
This consultation is seeking additional evidence on the impacts of removing 36 of these reliefs, and comments on the transitional arrangements that might help to minimise these impacts.
The Government would welcome comments on our proposed approach to simplifying the tax system through the removal of reliefs, as well as seeking to answer specific questions related to the reliefs themselves.
All interested parties are encouraged to engage fully with the consultation, in order to ensure that the Government’s approach to simplification through the removal of tax reliefs is carried out without unintended effects on taxpayers.
