Don’t rush through tax changes, says CIOT

The Chartered Institute of Taxation has written to chancellor Alistair Darling urging him not to rush through substantial tax changes without any real parliamentary scrutiny.

If the 24 March Budget is followed, as expected, by a 6 May general election, a Finance Bill will be rushed through in, almost certainly, a single day.

The CIOT is urging the chancellor to include in it only those measures essential to maintain the government’s revenue-raising capacity, such as renewing the provision of income tax. Other measures should be left until a post-election Finance Bill where they can be scrutinised at length.

In the letter, CIOT president Andrew Hubbard says: ‘The CIOT strongly believes that good tax law requires close examination and detailed scrutiny from parliamentarians and from outside experts.

‘In particular this is to ensure that the legislation does not have unintended negative consequences. A Finance Bill rushed through all its stages in a single day does not allow for this – especially in the final days of a parliament when most MPs’ minds will, understandably, be elsewhere.’

The power to collect income tax must be renewed by 5 May each year.

The last pre-election Finance Bill, in 2005, saw 106 clauses and various schedules rushed through all their parliamentary stages in four hours, with only the first 13 clauses having any debate at all.