An Update on the Work of the Tax Law Review Committee

Abstract

This note looks at the work the Tax Law Review Committee (TLRC) has done since its inauguration in October 1994. The TLRC was established by the Institute for Fiscal Studies in the autumn of 1994. It is independent of government but has received cross-party support. Treasury Ministers and government departments have been fully consulted and apprised of the work, and they have been most supportive and helpful. The establishment of the TLRC was a manifestation of the depth of concern about the state of the UK tax system. The volume of tax legislation has been growing remorselessly, with the last four Finance Acts by far the longest on record. The Inland Revenue now estimates that there are 6,000 pages of primary and secondary legislation on the statute-book concerning direct tax alone, and behind this there are tens of thousands of pages of non-statutory materials: extrastatutory concessions, statements of practice, internal manuals and so on. Moreover, there was a perception that tax legislation was becoming ever more detailed and more difficult to comprehend. There was also increasing concern about a number of other controversial aspects of the tax system.