 Facts and figures about UK taxes, benefits and public spending.
Income distribution, poverty and inequality.
Analysing government fiscal forecasts and tax and spending.
Analysis of the fiscal choices an independent Scotland would face.
Case studies that give a flavour of the areas where IFS research has an impact on society.
Reforming the tax system for the 21st century.
A peer-reviewed quarterly journal publishing articles by academics and practitioners.
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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
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.
This report addresses whether current UK methods of dealing with avoidance are adequate and satisfactory and what, if any, other measures might be taken. Should current judicial anti-avoidance doctrines be allowed to develop or should Parliament take the initiative with a general anti-avoidance rule?
Judith Freedman and Emma Chamberlain
The schedular system of income tax in the UK frequently comes under attack, not least in relation to the distinctions it draws between the tax treatment of the employed and the self-employed.
In this report the Tax Law Review Committee advocates a number of proposals for the thorough overhaul of the tax appeals system. The UK does not have a single system of tax appeals but a number of systems, the details of which differ according to the tax and there is a maze of provisions that can baffle taxpayers and practitioners alike which can affect access to the system and the cost of tax appeals.
Recommendations for the way Parliament handles Tax Simplification Bills are made in this report by a working party of the Tax Law Review Committee.
The main conclusions of this report are that tax legislation should be written in plain English, that the Government should publish explanatory memoranda with all Finance Bills, that the project already announced by the Government, to rewrite existing tax legislation in plain English should go ahead as long as it produces worthwhile improvements in understanding, and that in the longer term, primary tax legislation should be drafted in terms of general principles.
John Avery Jones CBE
This is the year of simplification of tax legislation and I should like to add my thoughts to the debate.
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 Started: 01 January 2013
Started: 01 September 2005
Started: 17 November 2004
Started: 17 November 2004
Started: 17 November 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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