Taxation

Current project status

• Initiation: Could include discussing scope and terms of reference with lead Government Department
• Pre-consultation: Could include approaching interest groups and specialists, producing scoping and issues papers, finalising terms of project
• Consultation: Likely to include consultation events and paper, making provisional proposals for comment
• Policy development: Will include analysis of consultation responses. Could include further issues papers and consultation on draft Bill
• Reported: Usually recommendations for law reform but can be advice to government, scoping report or other recommendations

In our consultation paper we propose the repeal of a series of statutory provisions relating to taxation law which span the years 1952 to 2010, and which have become obsolete or spent through the passage of time, or because of subsequent statutory intervention.  In all, we recommend the repeal of portions of some 32 Acts and the whole of one Act (together with the revocation of parts of four sets of Regulations (1986 through to 2003)).

The repeals recommended in this consultation paper have been referred to the Law Commission by H M Revenue and Customs.  They flow in the main from the Tax Law Rewrite (TLR) project which was prefaced by a requirement in the Finance Act 1995 (c.4), s 160 – placed on the Inland Revenue – to report to Treasury Ministers on “tax simplification”.  The project, which started with a blueprint paper published in July 1996 (Tax Law Rewrite: The Way Forward), led to the enactment of seven taxation statutes, spanning the years 2001 to 2010 –

• Capital Allowances Act 2001 (c.2) (“CAA 2001”)
• Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 (c.1) (“ITEPA 2003”)
• Income Tax (Trading and Other Income) Act 2005 (c.5) (“ITTOIA 2005”)
• Income Tax Act 2007 (c.3) (“ITA 2007”)
• Corporation Tax Act 2009 (c.4) (“CTA 2009”)
• Corporation Tax Act 2010 (c.4) (“CTA 2010”)
• Taxation (International and Other Provisions) Act 2010 (c.8) (“TIOPA 2010”).

A large proportion of the repeals set out in this paper are consequential upon the consolidation process undertaken within the TLR project.  Rewrites of subordinate tax legislation also went hand-in-hand with the primary legislative task.

The tax law repeals are addressed in this paper in a chronological sequence, running from the Income Tax Act 1952 (the few remaining provisions of which are recommended for repeal in whole) through to the Taxation (International and Other Provisions) Act 2010 (where only some very small consequential repeals are required).

All the Acts dealt with in the consultation paper extend across the United Kingdom, although five of them do have special savings or modifications for Northern Ireland.