Little progress made with VAT simplification

Seventeenth November 2017 was a significant date in the VAT calendar: the final report was produced by the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) to give suggestions and recommendations about how to improve the administration and fairness of the nation’s favourite tax. Now five years on it is a good time to ask: what changes have been made to implement the recommendations made by the soon to be abolished OTS? It was an excellent and well-presented report but the answer – I am afraid – is not a lot.

Freezing the registration threshold

The report made 23 recommendations but it focused on eight core recommendations that were to be given priority. I have studied all eight of them in detail and my total mark out of eight for actual improvements is 0.5. In percentage terms that is 6.25%.

The first core recommendation was that the government should...