8.In December 1995 the Inland Revenue presented a report to Parliament on the scope for simplifying the United Kingdom tax system (The Path to Tax Simplification). The main recommendation was that United Kingdom direct tax legislation should be rewritten in clearer, simpler language.
9.This recommendation was warmly welcomed, both in Parliament and in the tax community. In his November 1996 Budget speech the then Chancellor of the Exchequer (the Rt Hon Kenneth Clarke QC MP) announced that the Inland Revenue would propose detailed arrangements for a major project to rewrite direct tax legislation in plainer language.
10.The project team was given the task of rewriting the United Kingdom’s existing primary direct tax legislation. The aim is that the rewritten legislation should use simpler language and structure than previous tax legislation. The members of the project are drawn from different backgrounds. They include HMRC employees, private sector tax professionals and parliamentary counsel including (as head of the drafting team) a senior member of the Parliamentary Counsel Office.
11.The work of the project is overseen by a Steering Committee, chaired by the Rt Hon the Lord Newton of Braintree OBE DL (who took over from the Rt Hon the Lord Howe of Aberavon CH QC at the beginning of 2006). The membership of the Steering Committee as at 31 October 2006 was:
The Rt Hon the Lord Newton of Braintree OBE DL (Chairman)
Dr John Avery Jones CBE
Adam Broke
Baroness Cohen of Pimlico
Ian Dewar
Mike Eland CB
The Rt Hon Michael Jack MP
Eric Joyce MP
District Judge Rachel Karp
David Swaine
Professor John Tiley CBE
12.The work is also reviewed by a Consultative Committee, representing the accountancy and legal professions and the interests of taxpayers. The membership of the Consultative Committee as at 31 October 2006 was:
| Mark Nellthorp | Chairman |
| Derek Allen | Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland |
| Brian Atkinson | 100 Group |
| Adam Broke | Special Committee of Tax Law Consultative Bodies |
| Colin Campbell | Confederation of British Industry |
| Taha Dharsi | London Chamber of Commerce and Industry |
| Mary Fraser | Association of Chartered Certified Accountants |
| Malcolm Gammie CBE QC | The Law Society of England and Wales |
| Julian Ghosh | Revenue Bar Association |
| Keith Gordon | Chartered Institute of Taxation |
| Terry Hopes | Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales |
| Isobel d’Inverno | Law Society of Scotland |
| Simon McKie | Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales |
| Francis Sandison | The Law Society of England and Wales |
| Simon Sweetman | Federation of Small Businesses |
| Michael Templeman | Institute of Directors |
| Wreford Voge | Chartered Institute of Taxation |
| Professor David Williams | Office of the Social Security Commissioners |
| Mervyn Woods | Confederation of British Industry |
13.The work produced by the project has been subject to public consultation. This has allowed all interested parties an opportunity to comment on draft clauses.
14.This consultation took the form of a series of papers which publish clauses in draft. There were 30 of these, published between April 2004 and October 2005. A draft Bill was published for consultation in February 2006. And two further papers on provisions in FA 2006 were published in July 2006. All these documents were made available on the Tax Law Rewrite website.
15.In addition to formal consultation, the project presents its papers to the Committees to inform the Committees and seek their views on particular issues. The project has also consulted on an informal basis with specialists in particular subject areas. For example, there have been regular meetings of the VCS (venture capital schemes) rewrite group during the development of the EIS and VCT Parts of the Act. This is a small group of practitioners (who represent a number of professional bodies), policy and technical specialists from HMRC and members of the project.
16.Those who responded to one or more of the papers, or to the draft Bill, include:
Anne Wilson
Anthony Davis
Association of Charitable Foundations
BDO Stoy Hayward LLP
Boodle Hatfield
British Bankers’ Association
Building Societies Association
Chartered Institute of Taxation
Charity Commission
Charity Law Association
Charles King-Farlow
Charles Pocock
Christine Harpin
City of Westminster & Holborn Law Society
Colin Campbell
Confederation of British Industry
David F Williams
Deloitte & Touche LLP
Department for Constitutional Affairs
Department of Finance and Personnel for Northern Ireland
Department for Social Development in Northern Ireland
Ernst & Young LLP
Euroclear
Francis Sandison
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
George Harrison
Helen Billing
Horwath Clark Whitehill LLP
Investment Management Association
Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales
Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland
James Kessler QC
John Avery Jones
John Clark
John Jeffrey-Cook
Ken Moody
KPMG LLP
Law Society of England and Wales
London Investment Banking Association
London Society of Chartered Accountants
Lovells
Low Incomes Tax Reform Group
Mark Whitehouse
Mazars LLP
Office of the Legislative Counsel, Northern Ireland
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Sayer Vincent
Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners
Terry Hopes
Wedlake Bell
Wellcome Trust
Note: this list excludes those who asked that their responses be treated in confidence.