The Office of Tax Simplification was an independent office of

HM Treasury His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury), occasionally referred to as the Exchequer, or more informally the Treasury, is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for developing and executing the government's public finance policy and ...

, part of the

Government of the United Kingdom ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_es ...

. The office was created on 20 July 2010 to identify areas where complexities in the tax system for both businesses and individual taxpayers can be reduced, and then to publish their findings for the Chancellor to consider ahead of his budget. In 2016, the OTS was put on a statutory footing by Finance Act 2016. The initial board members were

Michael Jack John Michael Jack, (born 17 September 1946) is a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom and was Member of Parliament for Fylde between 1987 and 2010, serving at various junior ministerial posts during the John Major administrat ...

(Chairman), who as a former MP and

Financial Secretary to the Treasury The financial secretary to the Treasury is a mid-level ministerial post in His Majesty's Treasury. It is nominally the fifth most significant ministerial role within the Treasury after the first lord of the Treasury, the chancellor of the Excheq ...

established the

Tax Law Rewrite Project The Tax Law Rewrite Project of HM Revenue and Customs was a major effort to re-write the entire tax legislation of the United Kingdom in a format which is both more consistent and more understandable. It aimed to remove archaic language and impen ...

, and John Whiting (Tax Director) who is the first Tax Policy Director of the

Chartered Institute of Taxation The Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) is a registered charity (number 1037771) and the leading professional body in the United Kingdom concerned solely with taxation. The CIOT deals with all aspects of direct and indirect taxation. Activit ...

. Jack and Whiting were appointed on an interim basis to lead the Office for the first year, and confirmed in office in September 2011. Along with the members of committees established to support the work of the Office, they are not paid for their work. They were supported by a small secretariat, including tax experts from

HM Revenue and Customs , patch = , patchcaption = , logo = HM Revenue & Customs.svg , logocaption = , badge = , badgecaption = , flag = , flagcaption = , image_size = , co ...

and the Treasury and externally funded secondees from the tax and legal professions. The first set of private sector secondees were Tom Byng, Caroline Turnbull-Hall, Partha Ray and Kate Cottrell, who joined Jeremy Sherwood, Tunde Ojetola and Anish Mehta. In 2015, former MP

Angela Knight Angela Ann Knight CBE (born Angela Ann Cook, 31 October 1950) was the chair of the Office of Tax Simplification. She was replaced on 18 March 2019. Previously she was the Chief Executive of Energy UK, the trade association for the energy indus ...

CBE was appointed chair and in November 2016, the appointment of Paul Morton as Tax Director was announced. In March 2019, Kathryn Cearns OBE was appointed OTS chair. Bill Dodwell was appointed Tax Director from 15 January 2019. The OTS submitted two reports to the Chancellor in March 2011. These are the Review of Tax Reliefs and the Review of Small Business Taxation. The Chancellor accepted some of the recommendations in his Budget announcement where he agreed to abolish 43 reliefs.

References

External links

Office of Tax Simplification official website
{{HM Treasury Public bodies and task forces of the United Kingdom government HM Treasury Government agencies established in 2010 2010 establishments in the United Kingdom

See also

References

External links