In a report prepared by the House of Commons called Tax after the EU referendum, it is clear that tax is not high on the agenda of policy areas that need to be urgently addressed as the UK leaves the EU.

The report states that aside from VAT, other tax heads have little impact from the EU. In theory therefore, once the UK leaves the EU, it is free to set whatever tax rules it so wishes. But if it isn’t broken, why fix it?

Take VAT as an example. It accounts for 17 percent of all government receipts. On Brexit, the UK could introduce new VAT rules should they wish. They could in theory widen zero-rating, exemption rules or the use of lower rates. This might involve significant legislative resource and given the fact that EU VAT rules work and have been mainly implemented into UK legislation, it would appear that the legislative resource would be better used in another area; the introduction of the customs bill for example.

There appears to be a commitment to reduce corporation tax to 17 percent and the report states that the UK wants to continue to tackle tax avoidance so is therefore likely to seek bilateral agreement in terms of the EU instruments relating to cooperation and exchange of information.

Interestingly the Government’s White Paper on its strategic aim for exiting the EU did not mention tax and the Brexit effect was not mentioned in Spring 2017 Budget or the Queens Speech.