ICAEW.com works better with JavaScript enabled.

Tax reform

ICAEW’s Tax Faculty draws on its members’ expertise to examine hot topics in tax and provide practical solutions to challenges faced by policymakers and regulators. This is underpinned by the faculty’s Ten Tenets for a Better Tax System that set out the characteristics against which it evaluates tax systems and tax policies.

Share your views on how to build a better tax system
To succeed in shaping the UK's tax system ICAEW's Tax Faculty wants the input of members and tax professional.
Tell us your view Take a survey
Contents
Back to top
Graphical illustration of the five institutional pillars ICAEW has identified as being crucial to reforming UK tax system: policymakers, administration, digital infrastructure, tax professional and judiciary.
Empty office
Thought leadership

How to build a better tax system

The UK tax system is failing, weighed down by decades of accumulated complexity. ICAEW's Tax Faculty has identified five pillars critical to creating a system fit for the future.
Read more
Updated for 2026

Ten Tenets of Tax

The Tax Faculty’s Ten Tenets for a Better Tax System comprise key characteristics against which to evaluate tax systems and tax policies.
Read more

Latest on tax reform

Government confirms new tourist levy
  • Article
  • 15 Sep 2026
Mayors and leaders of foundation strategic authorities (FSAs) in England will be given the power to introduce an overnight visitor levy, subject to consultation locally and within a national framework.
ICAEW responds to draft Finance Bill provisions
  • Article
  • 08 Sep 2026
ICAEW has responded to the government’s technical consultation on draft legislation for the Finance Bill (FB) 2026-27, and to its consultation on simplifying treaty relief from withholding tax on interest paid overseas, both published on 13 July 2026.
Changes proposed to the VAT rules for online marketplaces
  • Article
  • 21 Aug 2026
ICAEW has questioned whether the government’s proposals, as set out in a consultation document published in June 2026, would effectively address VAT non-compliance on online marketplaces, and suggests an alternative solution.
ICAEW supports new VAT relief for social housing
  • Article
  • 20 Aug 2026
The introduction of a new, targeted VAT relief would reduce costs and help avoid delays in building new social housing, says ICAEW in its response to the government’s consultation.
ICAEW cautions against mandating direct debits for VAT and PAYE
  • Article
  • 17 Aug 2026
Requiring payment of VAT and pay as you earn (PAYE) by direct debit is not a suitable measure to tackle late payment and tax debt, says ICAEW in its response to the government’s consultation.
Significant concerns raised over plans for earlier payment of income tax
  • Article
  • 11 Aug 2026
In its response to the government’s consultation on more timely payment of income tax self assessment (ITSA), ICAEW has warned that the policy may overburden employers and cause hardship for taxpayers.
Proportionate response needed to plastic packaging tax concerns, says ICAEW
  • Article
  • 11 Aug 2026
Responding to the consultation on introducing a mandatory certification requirement for plastic packaging tax (PPT), ICAEW has encouraged the government to make better use of existing data alongside targeted compliance interventions.
Government publishes draft Finance Bill legislation
  • Article
  • 14 Jul 2026
The government has published draft legislation confirming several policy announcements made at tax update 2026 and earlier, as well as new consultations on a range of areas, including the taxation of predevelopment costs.
View all

Building a better tax system

The Tax Faculty has launched a major new programme of work looking at what the UK tax system should look like.
Independent advice needed to improve UK tax policymaking
  • Video
  • 29 Jun 2026
The UK's tax system is straining under pressures it was never designed for, and reform is politically unappealing. ICAEW’s How to Build a Better Tax System project has outlined what needs to change in how tax policy is created.
How to reform tax policymaking in the UK
  • Article
  • 29 Jun 2026
Continuing ICAEW’s work on building a better tax system, Ed Saltmarsh explains what’s wrong with tax policymaking in the UK and suggests how meaningful change could be achieved by keeping long-term strategy, technical implementation and political decision-making separate.
Reforming UK tax policymaking
  • Thought leadership report
  • 29 Jun 2026
In this paper on how to build a better tax system, ICAEW explains why the current tax policy framework is incapable of delivering meaningful reform and suggests how it can be improved.
Why HMRC must change to succeed
  • Article
  • 01 Jun 2026
Ed Saltmarsh highlights the key points from ICAEW’s latest paper on building a better tax system, setting out why HMRC’s current transformation programme risks failure and what needs to change for it to succeed.
Transforming UK tax administration
  • Thought leadership report
  • 29 May 2026
In this paper on how to build a better tax system, ICAEW sets out why HMRC’s current transformation programme risks failure and what needs to change for it to succeed.
Principles, pillars, and priorities
  • Thought leadership report
  • 07 Apr 2026
In the UK, where economic resilience, fairness, and long-term investment are critical to national priorities, the strength of the tax system has never mattered more.
Read more

How to fix VAT

ICAEW has explored the challenges and opportunities offered in reimagining VAT and its application. Read about the history of VAT, the lessons that can be learned from outside the UK and the potential of digitalisation.
Why the UK must reform VAT
  • Article
This vital revenue stream is burdened by complexity, undermined by exemptions, and dogged by a lack of digitalisation. Post-Brexit, there is both an opportunity and an imperative for core reform.
Why previous efforts to simplify VAT have failed
  • Article
Fifty years on from its introduction, VAT is a complex tax that taxpayers struggle to understand. Despite attempts at simplification, including by the Office of Tax Simplification itself, VAT remains notoriously complicated. Experts explain why this is the case.
How to fix VAT: digitalising the system
  • Article
Digitalisation of VAT promised great rewards, but initial attempts have faltered as HMRC navigates unexpected complexities in the system and the range of taxpayers it deals with. Despite some success, more work is needed to push the changes through.
Exclusive Ideas for reforming VAT
  • Article
VAT prize-winners Sze Teen Wong, Cheryl Ong and Anna Poh point to international experiences to explain how the UK’s VAT system could be made simpler and more progressive.
Read more

Tax representations

ICAEW REP 089/26 Welsh Government consultation on the classification of self-catering properties for local tax purposes
  • Representation
  • 23 Oct 2026
  • PDF (194kb)
A representation 23 October 2026 to a consultation published by the Welsh Government on 31 July 2026.
ICAEW REP 088/26 Aligning the time limits for recovery of NIC with income tax
  • Representation
  • 12 Oct 2026
  • PDF (201kb)
A representation dated 12 October 2026 to a consultation published by HMRC on 13 July 2026.
ICAEW REP 083/26 Introduction on mandatory registration for customs intermediaries
  • Representation
  • 21 Sep 2026
  • PDF (268kb)
A representation dated 21 September 2026 to a consultation published by HMRC on 23 June 2026.
ICAEW REP 084/26 Tax treatment of predevelopment costs
  • Representation
  • 21 Sep 2026
  • PDF (246kb)
A representation dated 21 September 2026 to a consultation published by HMRC on 16 June 2026.
ICAEW REP 082/26 Land remediation relief
  • Representation
  • 17 Sep 2026
  • PDF (207kb)
A representation dated 17 September 2026 to a consultation published by HMRC on 13 July 2026.
ICAEW REP 078/26 Customs modernisation
  • Representation
  • 15 Sep 2026
  • PDF (227kb)
A representation dated 15 September 2026 to a consultation published by HMRC on 23 June 2026.
ICAEW REP 079/26 Call for evidence on PAYE settlement agreements
  • Representation
  • 15 Sep 2026
  • PDF (285kb)
A representation dated 15 September 2026 to a consultation published by HMRC on 23 June 2026.
ICAEW REP 080/26 Call for evidence on voluntary NIC
  • Representation
  • 15 Sep 2026
  • PDF (208kb)
A representation dated 15 September 2026 to a consultation published by HMRC on 23 June 2026.
View more

Watch a Tax Faculty webinar

Webinars and videos have been designed by the Tax Faculty to provide practical guidance to practitioners on important developments to tax practice and policy.

You can register for Tax Faculty webinars by visiting our events page.
Register now
Cameraman filming