Mirrless Review published
The final report of the Mirrlees Committee, sponsored by the Institute of Fiscal Studies, has now been published. It makes wide-ranging proposals to simplify the UK’s tax system: income tax and National Insurance should be merged, with an alignment of the way the employed, self employed, and limited company owners are taxed.
The Review, chaired by Sir James Mirrlees, argues that a coherent vision for the tax system is needed, and lays out a comprehensive set of proposals for tax reform. Amongst the proposals are that a land value tax for business and agricultural land should, if practicable, replace business rates and stamp duty land tax on non-domestic property. It also suggests that Council Tax should be reformed so that payments are fully proportional to house value and are based on up-to-date values.
Although we would of course like to see a phasing out of taxes on wages, goods and services, with their substantial replacement by LVT, the Mirrless proposals would be a move in the right direction; logically, if business and agricultural property should be subject to LVT, then the same should apply to residential property also.