Parties should ensure any tax change pledges are not just a popularity contest for the 2015 general election, says ACCA

Politicians of every party face a stark choice between raising taxes or cutting spending, ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) has claimed as the Liberal Democrats autumn conference continues.

Chas Roy-Chowdhury, head of taxation at ACCA, said ahead “The Lib Dems seem to recognise that tax rises are needed to fund more spending and tax cuts at the lower income end but are fudging the magnitude of the required billions of pounds of tax rises which will be required to deliver their promises.

“We believe that, in order to raise the money needed to provide the services required, politicians must consider either raising VAT to 22.5 per cent, increasing National Insurance Contributions (NIC) and lowering the threshold at which inheritance tax (IHT) becomes payable” he said.

“None of these increases would be popular with the electorate and changes to NIC, which could be seen as a tax on employers, or IHT, would not raise the money needed – leaving a VAT hike –paid by everyone - as the ‘least worst’ option.

“HMRC itself estimates that £30 billion is lost to the Treasury each year through tax evasion, which is illegal, and through avoidance, which is not but is made possible by complex legislation. The so called tax gap. HMRC urgently needs investment to enable it to pursue tax avoidance and evasion more effectively and deal with the intricacies of tax legislation and it is an issue which politicians should address in any case as a way of raising more revenue under existing tax rates before they begin to think about raising taxes” said Chas Roy-Chowdhury.