Wednesday, December 15, 2010

The Pre-Budget Report that we missed....and what it means

Many people were surprised by the publication last week of a wealth of Treasury and HMRC documentation which included draft clauses for the Finance Bill 2011.

We should remember though that this is all in line with the promised 'new approach to tax policy making'. Much of the Bill was published in draft, back in July when the Government launched an informal consultation on 32 separate technical tax measures. These had all been inherited from the previous government.

We have now been given the promised eight weeks for comments on the draft Finance Bill legislation.

This is all to be applauded and, as I have said before, if the Government continues to keep its promises re the 'new approach' there will be fewer shock surprises and less poorly drafted tax legislation.

Some people are concerned that we have a new Finance Bill but that this was not preceded by a 'Pre-Budget Report'. This also explains the absence of the traditional 'Budget' summaries produced by accountants and the supplements normally published by financial journalists. This is no great loss as such summaries and supplements have decreased in value in recent years.

For those who want to continue the tradition, Budget summaries and supplements will no doubt return after the Budget next March. In the meantime we have more notice than ever before of all key income tax and NIC figures for 2011/12. These were announced on 2 December.
The question though is whether the 'new approach' means that accountants are as uptospeed as ever with all the new tax laws and when they come into effect. I'm wondering if this might increase the demand to defer to tax specialists who, by definition, have to keep on top of such things.

What do you think?

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2 comments:

  1. yes its all too much.
    I wanna get off.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I really think there will be more posts that is something like this to help people understand fully. It is going to be a big help.

    ReplyDelete