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 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. Search
Robert Chote and Matthew Wakefield
Discussions about how many people should pay higher rate tax are treacherous waters into which politicians wade at their peril, as Peter Hain, leader of the House of Commons, discovered in June.
In December 2001, the TLRC established a working party under the Chairmanship of Sir Alan Budd. The Working Party's terms of reference were Ó”o review the institutional processes for the Parliamentary scrutiny of tax proposals and for the enactment of tax legislation and to consider whether changes to those processes would promote simplification and improve the quality of tax legislation and, if so, what the nature of those institutional changes should be.Ô This Reports sets out the working party's conclusions.
Julio López-Laborda and Fernando Rodrigo
The aim of this paper is to evaluate the long-term impact on Spanish individual income tax (IRPF) compliance of the amnesty measures granted in 1991 within the framework of the 1988-91 income tax reform programme.
The IFS's Tax Law Review Committee calls for 'joined-up' review of law on employment status in response to a review by the DTI.
In this report, the Committee has been considering the relationship between tax and accounting measures of business income. Increasingly, the courts have been prepared to accept the use of accounting standards without an overlay of specific tax rules. Year by year more legislation draws upon accounting principles and practices to define the business tax base. Where could might or should this growing relationship between tax and accounting lead? The recent developments raise fundamental questions about the appropriateness of linking the business tax system to an evolving accounting process. For example, are current accounting principles and practices consistent with the requirements of the tax system? Does the current direction of accounting evolution support the closer alignment of tax and accounting measures of business income? Will closer alignment inhibit agreement on accounting standards that would otherwise improve financial reporting?
Alissa Goodman and Howard Reed
With an election probably looming, Gordon Brown's fifth budget has featured moderate tax cuts targeted at basic and higher rate income tax payers, families with children, motorists and drinkers.
In this report, the Committee considers the issue of tax equity between the employed and self-employed. This complex topic raises many questions, one of which relates to the way in which the tax system classifies workers. Do changing work patterns indicate the need for a new approach to classification for tax purposes? Is the case law that currently governs the area sufficiently robust and clear, especially in the light of the new burden placed upon it by the so-called ‘IR35’ legislation on personal service companies? What is the relation between classification of workers for taxation and their classification in other areas of law, particularly employment law? These are some of the issues addressed in this paper.
In this report, the Committee presents its recommendations for the creation of a unified tax tribunals system to cover all taxes. It does so against the background of the comments that it received on its first Report, which are extensively summarised in the Appendix. The Committee urges the Lord Chancellor's Department to act upon its recommendations and implement the proposed new tribunal system by 2002.
In this report the Tax Law Review Committee responds to the Inland Revenue's proposals. It concludes that the proposals fail to secure the objectives of the Committee's previous Report. Furthermore, the proposed rule places no significant burden on the Revenue to justify its use, fails to secure a proper balance of interests between Revenue and taxpayers and would be intrusive on ordinary commercial and private transactions.
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 Started: 01 September 2005
Started: 17 November 2004
Started: 17 November 2004
Started: 17 November 2004
Started: 01 January 2004
 The Mirrlees Review shows the importance IFS attaches to high quality empirical evidence in the design of tax and benefit system.
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