The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) provides independent advice to the government on simplifying the UK tax system, with the object of reducing compliance burdens on both businesses and individual taxpayers. The OTS operates on a permanent, statutory footing and seeks to draw together expertise from across the tax and legal professions, the business community and other interested parties.
A report published by the OTS last year examined a number of ideas to help make the calculation of Corporation Tax simpler. The report focused on introducing a simpler tax regime for smaller companies, aligning the tax rules more closely with accounting rules, simplifying tax relief for capital investment and examining various issues affecting large companies. For example, one of the recommendations was to allow the very smallest companies, to use the accounting profit prepared under accounting standard FRS105 as the taxable profit without any adjustments.
Whilst the report mainly dealt with Corporation Tax, some of the ideas could also be relevant for unincorporated businesses. The report also considered the introduction of Making Tax Digital, and various measures to make the tax system more straightforward for the many small businesses throughout the country. The consultation outcome has recently been updated. It will be interesting to see if any changes are announced in the run-up to the Budget later this year.