Tax Reform in the United Kingdom and Ireland

Abstract

In this paper the content of tax changes and the methods of tax policymaking, in the United Kingdom and in Ireland are compared and contrasted. Since 1965 there have been at least six new mainstream taxes introduced in each country, with much similarity of content, which in part, is a result of a common tax-heritage, of common membership of the EEC and of similar external pressures.

The methods of tax policymaking reveal rather more differences, not least because of the differing source of the division between the main parties; but even here, similarities are marked. In both, the party stage has been crucial and policymaking in government has been bedevilled by rash commitments in opposition. In both countries, tax policy has tended to become more open, with the United Kingdom offering rather more scope for Parliamentary input to the policymaking process. In both, pressure groups have exercised a significant influence on the outcome of tax proposals.

Whilst both countries have had special ad hoc committees on taxation, their influence on policy has been much less than the quality of their reports deserved.

The new taxes have, themselves, been subject to frequent change and, in some cases, to abolition; the fruits of two decades of feverish activity in tax policymaking are pitifully small.