ROBERT BRUCE

Why we need an Office for Tax Reform

In recent years there have been umpteen Budgets. Enough to ensure that sane people think that chaos seems to have the upper hand. The traditional Budget picture should not be the Chancellor of the Exchequer waving a small case aloft. In reality it is likely to be of them proudly standing with their foot firmly on the head of whichever dragon they claim to have vanquished, (and in such acts high stiletto heels would be the most effective). Such events are more about image and publicity rather than policy and achievements.

At an Institute for Government event entitled Making Tax Policy Better we were a world away from the frivolous nonsense that normally surrounds the Budget. We spend too much time on future policy and too little on what is happening now, was one view. It is absurd that businesses have no clue until the Budget what their rate of tax in the years ahead is likely to be, was another. A ten-year digital strategy is needed. The pensions system IT systems date back to the 1980s. There are too many Budgets and parliamentary scrutiny is weak. And so on. At the disaster of the Budget during the Liz Truss weeks they abolished the Office of Tax Simplification. Bizarre. A session of clear thinking about tax is now required. We now need an Office for Tax Reform.