The Tax Law Review Committee was set up by the IFS in autumn 1994 to ask whether the tax system was working as intended, efficiently and without imposing unnecessary burdens. Its role is to keep under review the state and operation of tax law in the UK, which it does by selecting particular topics for study. It does not seek to question Government policy as such but to look at whether existing arrangements achieve the policy in a satisfactory and efficient way.

The Committee's members represent a broad cross-section of informed opinion from industry and commerce, the judiciary, academia, the professions and political and public life, including the full span of the political spectrum. The President is Lord Howe of Aberavon CH QC who, as Sir Geoffrey Howe, served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons in Mrs Thatcher's Governments between 1979 and 1990. The original Chairman was Graham Aaronson QC. Since 2002, the Committee has been chaired by Sir Alan Budd, D. Phil. Sir Alan was a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England. From 1991 to 1997 he was Chief Economic Adviser to H. M. Treasury and Head of the Government Economic Service.

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