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President Coleclough criticises government's “slapdash approach”
The new president of the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) has called on the government to take a “serious, grown-up” approach to European tax legislation, accusing the UK authorities of taking a “slapdash approach to complying with rules that we help set”.
Stephen Coleclough used his inaugural speech this week to set out the objectives of his coming year in office, which will focus on the European Union (EU).
He first pledged to encourage tax professionals to be aware of the ways in which EU membership affects their work and the entitlements and opportunities it brings.
He cited as an the example the 2005 EU Directive on the Recognition of Professional Qualifications, which entitles CIOT members to “request that their CTA is treated as equivalent to the tax qualifications of other EU countries that they may work in”.
Coleclough – a former president of the Confédération Fiscale Européenne, the pan-European body for tax professionals – went on to claim his main challenge would be to “press for a more serious, grown-up approach from government to complying with EU tax law.
“Too often the UK government acts too late or does too little, and fails in its responsibilities,” he said, pointing out that four of the five provisions in the current Finance Bill meant to ensure UK law complies with its EU counterpart will fail in their objective.
“This is crazy. This slapdash approach to complying with rules that we help set, and which help ensure that the single market can operate fairly, is failing UK taxpayers. It needs to change,” said Coleclough.
