The Government is reportedly looking into the possibility of developing a simpler system for personal taxes.
An announcement by the Treasury launched a discussion paper designed to gather a range of ideas on how people feel about accessing information on their personal taxes.
Among the main areas of debate are what taxpayers know about what they pay, which areas of the system create the most difficulty and how technology could improve access and understanding in regards to personal taxes.
David Guake, the exchequer secretary, commented: “At the moment, for a lot of people, the tax line on their pay slip is the only time they see just how much they're paying in tax, but the Government doesn't think that's good enough. We want to make tax more transparent and we want people to be more engaged with their own tax affairs.”
He added that the Government wants to explore ways of integrating National Insurance and income tax and delivering benefits for both employers and employees.
To achieve this, the Government is to work in partnership with external stakeholders in order to identify its possible options before reporting back on progress in the 2012 Budget.
