Consultation on the removal of 36 tax reliefs
Seeking evidence on the impacts of removing 36 tax reliefs, and the transitional arrangements that might help to minimise these impacts.
In Budget 2011, the Chancellor announced his decision to abolish 43 tax reliefs. This followed the independent Office of Tax Simplification’s (OTS) March 2011 report reviewing the number and complexity of tax reliefs in the UK tax system. A consultation ran seeking additional evidence on the impacts of removing 36 of these reliefs, and comments on the transitional arrangements that might help to minimise these impacts.
Read more about the OTS review of tax reliefs review
The Government received 78 responses from individuals, businesses and representative bodies. A wide range of arguments were presented for either retaining or delaying the repeal of 22 of the 36 reliefs. These arguments were considered and weighed against the Government’s overall objective to simplify the tax system.
The Government’s final decisions are to:
- fully abolish 28 reliefs
- partially abolish four reliefs (mineral royalties; deeply discounted securities; and disadvantaged areas - stamp duty and stamp duty land tax)
- for exceptional reasons not to abolish four reliefs (late night taxis, compensation for mis-sold pensions; land remediation; and NICs exemption for identifying lost or stolen credit cards).
In addition, in the process of instructing Parliamentary Counsel, a further three provisions were identified as redundant and will be subsequently abolished.