We recently asked some of our tax partners and senior tax managers which area of tax legislation they would change and why, if they were given the opportunity. We have already heard from Scott Burkinshaw, Andrew Grant, Adrian Dunkley and Rachael Dronfield. Here we have a look at the thoughts of Matthew Goodchild, and Chris Chambers.
Matt Goodchild
Senior Tax Manager
“The Autumn Statement 2014 may have reversed a long trend but I think that there has to be further widening in coming years of the basic rate band for income tax purposes. The increase in personal allowances has been beneficial for many taxpayers but the squeeze has come with more and more taxpayers falling into the 40% higher rate tax bracket.
The situation is worse for high earners who lose all of the personal allowance if earnings are above £120k and marginal rates can be as high as 60%. Widening the basic rate band again would in part alleviate some of this increased burden and hopefully free up some spending power in an economy still recovering from the financial crisis.”
Chris Chambers
Private Client Partner
“I would look to remove the anomalies associated with the taxation of Chargeable Event gains relating to Investment Bonds. Top-slicing relief has the effect of alleviating the burden of higher rate tax on such gains but doesn’t prevent the loss of Age Allowance and/or Personal Allowance.
The Government should look to enhance the benefits of top-slicing relief to give the full measure of what I believe would have originally been intended.”
Scott Burkinshaw
Scott is Tax Partner at Shorts, specialising in providing strategic corporate and personal tax advice.
View my articlesTags: Business Taxes
