The Office of Tax Simplification’s (“OTS”) latest report on Inheritance Tax (“IHT”) is now available. The OTS has also outlined the scope of a new project on practical tax reporting and payment arrangements and recently published its annual report.

The second report on IHT contains recommendations designed to make substantive aspects of the design of IHT “simpler, more intuitive and easier to operate”. The main area suggested for reform is the taxation of lifetime gifts, including where individual liability lies, simplifying the exemptions and a review of business exemptions to ensure they are focused on the policy goals of raising tax. The OTS would also like to see the seven-year period shortened to five years.

The OTS will also be carrying out a new project on practical tax reporting and payment arrangements. This work will:

• follow up the OTS’s July 2018 paper on the impact of the platform economy on self-employed people; and
• take account of the OTS’s Technology discussion paper, published in January 2019.

What areas of the UK tax system would you like to see simplified and how? The Northern Ireland Tax Committee would like to hear from you on UK tax simplification. Contact leontia.doran@charteredaccountants.ie to tell us your thoughts.