Hello OTS, goodbye red tape?

Tax doesn’t have to be taxing - and yet for so many, let’s face it, it is. The Office of Tax Simplification -- announced this week by George Osborne - may sound like something out of a Terry Gilliam film but don’t let that put you off. The idea of a body to make sense of the UK’s tax rules has to be applauded.

Former Conservative Treasury minister Michael Jack is to head the government's Office for Tax Simplification, with John Whiting, tax policy director at the Chartered Institute of Taxation and former tax partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, sitting as director.

Whiting’s appointment is stroke of genius. Aside from being a bloody nice bloke, he is the only individual I know who manages to make the subject of tax positively enthralling. It’s no wonder he’s number 1 on the speed dial of tax hacks across the country.

But key appointments won’t, admittedly, be enough to guarantee success of this organisation; gaining the support of the UK’s tax heavyweights will - and so far the signs are good.

Shortly after its creation, Deloitte issued a statement quoting tax partner John Cullinane welcoming the creation of the OTS. "The UK's tax rules are too complex, and change too often, sometimes in ways that are hard to understand or predict," Cullinane said. "This creates burdens and uncertainties for business and is unfair on millions of citizens who cannot afford regular professional advice.”

Cullinane’s words of encouragement weren’t without their caveats, however. And he has a point when he points out that it will be a challenge to make and sustain real progress. "Making rules simpler creates winners and losers - and the losers shout louder. The Chancellor and the new Office will need to keep the public focussed on the benefits to us all of a simpler system, if this worthwhile initiative is not to run into political sands.”

But one resounding message that the creation of the ONS does send out is that the UK is open for business, with the premise of simpler, more competitive taxes that will not only encourage entrepreneurship and reduce red tape but be good for all faced with the current "spaghetti bowl of tax legislation", as Osborne described it – from taxpayers to advisers.