The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) will carry out a review of a range of aspects of VAT in order to consider whether the VAT system is ‘working appropriately in today’s economy and to identify simplification opportunities’, with an update on its work and call for evidence to appear in the spring of 2017.
The work will include consideration of ‘the extent to which the definitions of the types of supply which are currently exempt from VAT, subject to a reduced rate or are zero-rated, fit the modern context, create complexity for businesses and administration’.
The OTS reports:
‘The review will not, in the main, be concerned with the VAT rate structure. Neither will it focus on issues likely to be significant in the context of the Government’s consideration of Brexit, such as the treatment of financial services, statistical reporting and EU cross border VAT rules such as MOSS. However, it will actively bear the Brexit context in mind in looking at opportunities to simplify VAT for the future.
