CIOT: Finance Bill 2012 weighs in at 670 pages
The CIOT has expressed concern at the sheer size of the Finance Bill published today. At 670 pages (plus almost as many of explanatory notes) it must be one of the longest, if not the longest, on record.1 To the CIOT, it emphasises the crucial need for full consultation in advance of measures to go into the Finance Bill.
Struggling to lift his copy of the Bill and accompanying notes, Anthony Thomas, CIOT President, said:
“It is clearly impossible for Parliament to give such an enormous Bill proper scrutiny in the limited time available. That means full and proper scrutiny before publication is vital. Fortunately large parts of the Bill have had that proper process – but it is unfortunate that some significant and wide-ranging measures such as the Child Benefit withdrawal charge are exposed here for the first time.
“We are surely getting to the point where the stages of good tax policy making – as set out in the government’s ‘Tax Policy Making – a new approach’ need to be formalised in a code of practice. Any deviation from using all the proper stages, apart from anti-avoidance measures, needs to be specifically explained and justified by Ministers.”
Notes to editors
The Bill is longer than any Finance Act passed in the last 20 years. The longest two are Finance Act 2000 (613 pages) and Finance Act 2004 (634 pages).
The Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) is a charity and the leading professional body in the United Kingdom concerned solely with taxation. The CIOT’s primary purpose is to promote education and study of the administration and practice of taxation. One of the key aims is to achieve a better, more efficient, tax system for all affected by it – taxpayers, advisers and the authorities.
The CIOT’s comments and recommendations on tax issues are made solely in order to achieve its primary purpose: it is politically neutral in its work. The CIOT will seek to draw on its members’ experience in private practice, government, commerce and industry and academia to argue and explain how public policy objectives (to the extent that these are clearly stated or can be discerned) can most effectively be achieved.
The CIOT’s 15,800 members have the practising title of ‘Chartered Tax Adviser’ and the designatory letters ‘CTA’.
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