More tax amendments imminent, says OTS chief

The man at the head of the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) has said that further announcements on new amendments to the British tax system will be made in the next couple of weeks.

The OTS tax director, John Whiting, said that the body is currently considering the tax administration structure for small businesses, following the preliminary reviews published earlier this year.

"There are a few projects within our small business report that we would like to take forward, whether a separate system is needed for small businesses, for example," he said.

"The plan is over the next couple of weeks to firm up on another couple of other projects: inheritance tax, pensioners' tax, employee benefits, share schemes and so on. They all have potential but we can only probably do a couple of projects."

Mr Whiting was speaking to the industry publication, Accountancy Age, in a public response to Treasury secretary, David Gauke's request for a further review on the matter. The Treasury select committee is investigating the administration of HMRC and, while Whiting said that there will be some overlap, the OTS work will be "complementary" to the select committee's work.