End of the Tax law rewrite project in sight
The Tax Law rewrite project which was launched by HMRC back in 1996 will end in 2010. The project aimed to make direct tax legislation more readable and accessible to its target audience.
It is expected that the last two major pieces of work of the rewrite project will become law in the spring of 2010.
- The Corporation Tax Bill which will substantially complete the rewrite of the corporation tax code. It includes provisions relating to losses and gifts to charities, group relief, distributions and avoidance.
- The Taxation (International and Other Provisions) Bill includes provisions relating to double tax relief, transfer pricing, advance pricing agreements and tax arbitrage. It also relocates and where appropriate rewrites some provisions to make them more accessible.
The Tax law rewrite project was consulting earlier this year with a number of representatives from accountancy, legal and business organisations about the support and scope for future rewrite work. The majority of respondents to this consultation supported the end of the rewrite project once the outstanding work of the rewrite team is completed. This work is expected to be completed by next year.