TaxPayers' Alliance: Chancellor's rhetoric on tax simplification not matched in reality

Wednesday, 23 March 2011 12:00 AM

Matthew Sinclair, director of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said in response to the Budget:

"Taxpayers will appreciate a cut in fuel duty that will be a welcome relief from crippling motoring taxes. Increasing the personal allowance will take lots more people out of tax and thankfully middle-class families aren't going to pay the price by being dragged into the higher rate as they were with earlier increases. The freeze in air passenger duty is a good start, though it comes ahead of a major EU tax hike on flights.

"Unfortunately the rhetoric about simplifying taxes wasn't matched in the reality of the chancellor's policies and there were too many fiddly little changes that will create new loopholes and make tax harder to understand. In order to pay for it all, we got a major tax hike that will increase electricity prices, a new tax on the North Sea that will increase our dependence on foreign oil and a pledge to tackle avoidance.

"The government need to do more to ease the burden on ordinary families and businesses by cutting back on those budgets that are rapidly rising and scrapping wasteful projects."

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