Tax Law Rewrite

Tax Law Rewrite Project

The aim of the Tax Law Rewrite Project is to rewrite the UK's primary direct tax legislation to make it clearer and easier to use, without changing the law.

The project's work is overseen by two outside Committees - a Consultative Committee and a Steering Committee. More information on the Committees is available in the project's Tax Law Rewrite: Report and Plans, 2008-09 document.

To date the project has delivered the following:

  • The Capital Allowances Act 2001 (effective from April 2001)
  • The Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 (effective from April 2003)
  • The Income Tax (Pay as You Earn) Regulations 2003 (effective from April 2004)
  • The Income Tax (Trading and Other Income) Act 2005 (effective from April 2005)
  • The Income Tax Act 2007 (effective from April 2007)
  • The Corporation Tax Act 2009
  • The Corporation Tax Act 2010
  • The Taxation (International and Other Provisions) Act 2010

All the project's publications, including the minutes of the Committee meetings, are available on the Tax Law Rewrite pages.

The three most recent Acts of the Tax Law Rewrite project - CTA 2009, CTA 2010 and TIOPA 2010 - complete the work of the project to rewrite the main direct tax legislation. Each of these Acts contains time limited powers to make corrections. To ensure that these powers are exercised in accordance with arrangements agreed during the lifetime of the project, the external Committees which have overseen the work of the project will as before review all proposals made by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to use the powers. Details of the proposals and the decisions of the Committees will continue to be published on the HMRC website.

Contents

The Taxation (International and Other Provisions) Act 2010

The Taxation (International and Other Provisions) Bill received Royal Assent on 18 March 2010 and comes into force on 1 April 2010. The Act rewrites a number of international provisions and relocates some other provisions to help users.

The Act, Tables of Origins and Explanatory notes have been published on the OPSI website (Opens new window). You can also access these by selecting the relevant links in the Rewritten Legislation page.

Correction of missed consequential amendments and errors identified in TIOPA 2010

A Statutory Instrument has been made under the powers contained in sections 375 and 376 of TIOPA 2010. It makes consequential amendments missed in TIOPA 2010 and corrects errors in TIOPA 2010 affecting that and other Acts. The amendments made by this instrument have effect from 1 April 2010.

Please see:

The Corporation Tax Act 2010

The second Corporation Tax Bill received Royal Assent on 3 March 2010 and takes effect from 1 April 2010. The Act includes provisions about losses and gifts to charities, various reliefs such as group relief, distributions, particular types of companies and activities, avoidance and definitions.

The Act, and Tables of Origins and Destinations have been published on the OPSI website - Acts 2010 (Opens new window). You can also access these by selecting the relevant links in the Rewritten Legislation page.

Correction of missed consequential amendments and errors identified in CTA 2010

A Statutory Instrument has been made under the powers contained in section 1179 of CTA 2010. It corrects errors in CTA 2010 affecting that and other Acts. The amendments made by this instrument have effect from 1 April 2010.

Please see:

The Corporation Tax Act 2009

The first Corporation Tax Bill received Royal Assent on 26 March 2009 and takes effect from 1 April 2009.

The Act covers:

  • the basic Corporation Tax provisions including the charge to tax, accounting periods and provisions relating to company residence
  • provisions relating to trading and property income and income from other sources
  • special provisions for companies affecting the computation of income, such as those for loan relationships, derivative contracts and intangible fixed assets
  • provisions governing particular types of expenditure, for example, expenditure on research and development and on film production

The Act, the Explanatory notes and Tables of Origins and Destinations have been published on the OPSI website - Acts 2009 (Opens new window). You can also access these by selecting the relevant links in the Rewritten Legislation page.

Correction of missed consequential amendments and errors identified in CTA 2009

A Statutory Instrument has been made under the powers contained in sections 1323 and 1324 of CTA 2009. It makes consequential amendments missed in CTA 2009 and corrects errors in CTA 2009 affecting that and other Acts. With the exception of the amendments to paragraph 71(1)(f) of Schedule 2 to CTA 2009 and the related amendment to Part 2 of Schedule 3 to that Act, all the amendments made by this instrument have effect from 1 April 2009.

Please see:

A Statutory Instrument has been made under the powers contained in section 1324 of CTA 2009. The amendments made by this instrument have effect from 1 April 2009.

Please see:

Income Tax Act 2007 (ITA)

The Income Tax Act 2007, also known as ITA, received Royal Assent on 20 March 2007 and takes effect from 6 April 2007.

ITA covers:

  • basic provisions about the charge to income tax, income tax rates, the calculation of income tax liability, and personal reliefs;
  • various specific reliefs, including relief for losses, the enterprise investment scheme, venture capital trusts, community investment tax relief, interest paid, gift aid and gifts of assets to charities;
  • specific rules about trusts, deduction of tax at source, manufactured payments and repos, the accrued income scheme and tax avoidance; and
  • general income tax definitions.

The Act, the Explanatory notes and the Table of Origins and Destinations have been published on the OPSI website - Acts 2007 (Opens new window). You can also access these by selecting the relevant links in the Rewritten Legislation page.

Correction of missed consequential amendments and errors identified in ITA 2007

Five Statutory Instruments have been made under the powers contained in sections 1028 and 1029 of ITA 2007. They make consequential amendments missed in ITA 2007 and correct errors in ITA 2007 affecting that and other Acts. All the amendments made by these instruments have effect from 6 April 2007.

Please see:

A Statutory Instrument has been made under the powers contained in sections 1028 and 1029 of ITA 2007. The amendments made by this instrument have effect from 6 April 2007.

Please see:

Recent additions

Some of these links may take you to documents in PDF format. To view a PDF document you must have Adobe Reader installed on your computer.

Rewritten legislation

Rewritten legislation produced by the Project to date are:

Other information

Comments or questions to

Andrew Jackson