HM Treasury has recently published a draft Tax Framework that could benefit businesses in a wide range of industries. However, the principles stipulated in the document will not be automatically applied.

This has caused concern to the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) as well as many contractor accountants, who say the principles will only be applied “where possible”.

The Framework hopes to provide businesses with a degree of certainty concerning the tax regulations for businesses. But although Andrew Hubbard, the CIOT president, welcomes the theory, he believes questions whether the government will be able to put these principles into practice.

The government hopes to secure stability, competitiveness and fairness for UK businesses and ensure that they do not suffer any new burdens or complexities.

Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, wants to keep the UK as a good place to conduct business and believes these proposals will ensure it stays that way.

The draft framework was put together by the Treasury and the Business-Government forum on Tax and globalisation and the government is now calling for feedback on the proposals.

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