Skip to main content
Ministers 'making new tax loopholes'

SNEAKY government ministers faced accusations yesterday of creating dozens of new reliefs within Britain’s tax system.

MPs in the Commons public accounts committee said that despite promising to simplify the tax system, the coalition had created almost three times as many new reliefs as those it had abolished — adding to the complexity.

The coalition’s newly opened Office of Tax Simplification carried out a review of 155 reliefs in March 2011, recommending that 47 should be scrapped.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer delivers a speech during a visit to Malloy Aeronautics in Berkshire following the publication of the long-delayed defence investment plan, June 30, 2026
Warfare / 2 July 2026
2 July 2026

Government's plan means ‘extra cash for war and overseas interventions, but less for schools and hospitals,’ Unison general secretary Andrea Egan warns

A sign in a field by the M40 near Warwick, protesting the changes to inheritance tax (IHT) rules, November 2024
Landownership / 22 October 2025
22 October 2025

CAROL WILCOX argues for the proper implementation of the land value tax, which could see unused plots sold off and landlords priced out of landlordism, potentially resolving the housing and planning crises