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Worshipful company
The Lord Mayor, Alderman Michael Savory, presented Letters Patent confirming the grant of Livery to the Company of Tax Advisers at a meeting of the Court of Aldermen held on Wednesday, 18 May at the Mansion House. The Worshipful Company of Tax Advisers thus became the 107th Livery Company of the City of London.
The Lord Mayor was the principal guest and speaker at the ensuing luncheon, at which Clive Tulloch, Master, and Roy Jennings, Founder Master, also spoke. The wording of the Letters Patent was read out by the City Chamberlain ... apparently the traditional language made some tax advisers present wish for the relative simplicity and brevity of the Taxes Acts.
Less regulation
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, has launched a Better Regulation Action Plan to boost flexibility and enterprise. He said that the old regulatory model, which started in Victorian times, with constant inspections, wholesale demands for information, and requirement for forms to be filled in at all times, would be replaced by a risk based approach where there was no inspection, form filling, or information requirements without justification.
The Chancellor's action plan sets out the timetable for the agenda.
The new Consumer Trading and Standards Agency will co-ordination at the local level. It will also lead in the inspection of large companies with outlets all over the country. The Chancellor cited the example of a large supermarket, which could now potentially be subject to inspection by 203 separate trading standards offices and have to comply with 203 slightly different enforcement practises and inspection regimes. Under the new system, it would only have to deal with one set of standards, applied consistently nationwide on a risk based basis by the Consumer Trading and Standards Agency.
An incentive scheme will promote more joint working between local authorities and, potentially, consolidate local inspectorates.
The Chancellor said that the risk based approach would be applied to the work of HMRC, aiming for less form filling and less need for inspection. With regard to the administration of tax, he said that the HMRC are consulting on a single tax account for small businesses: a single point of contact for all taxes, piloting single inspection, a risk based approach to visits, with information provided only once, and less time spent on form filling.
The agenda for tax administration form is shown below.
June 2005: Key tax forms will be identified that require improvement.
July 2005: Budget consultation on business priorities for simplification of tax administration will finish.
2005 pre-Budget report: The Chancellor will set out progress on simplifying tax administration, e.g. to bring together a business's tax liabilities and payments into a single account, creating a single point of contact for all taxes.
2006 Budget: Following an assessment by HMRC of the burden that tax administration imposes upon small business, targets will be set by the Chancellor for HMRC to reduce the administrative burden over time.
Southerly merger
Smith & Williamson and Solomon Hare have merged with each other to form a combined group which will have a turnover in excess of £120 million, ranking it as the eighth largest UK financial advisory firm.
Two of the oldest independent firms in the UK, Smith & Williamson and Solomon Hare have both been members of the global Nexia International network (represented in 96 countries) for more than five years, during which time they have established close working relationships.
Taxation has a link with each of the merged firms, as Francesca Lagerberg of Smith & Williamson and Kevin Slevin of Solomon Hare are both members of our editorial board.
