Office of Tax Simplification – Property Income Survey

What is the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS)?

The OTS is part of HM Treasury and acts as an independent adviser to the government on simplifying the UK tax system. The OTS is not part of the UK tax authority, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

Why are the OTS looking at the taxation of property income?

The OTS wants to understand what aspects of tax on property income are complex for taxpayers to understand or are difficult for them to get right.  In doing this, it is gathering evidence from the taxpaying public, professional advisers, and other bodies, such as the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (LITRG). You can find further details about the background to the review in the OTS’s scoping document.

Once the review is complete, the OTS will write up its findings and make recommendations to the government.

LITRG welcomes this review into what can be a wide and complex area of tax. We encourage taxpayers who have property income to speak out about their experiences.

How can I get involved?

If you receive residential property income (whether from individually/jointly-owned property, or property held through a partnership or company), then the OTS is keen to hear from you.

Survey

The easiest way to put forward your comments is by completing the OTS’s online survey. All data collected will be dealt with confidentially and responses will not be shared with HMRC. The survey is a mixture of multiple choice questions and also questions where, if you wish, you are able to input written details of your experiences with the property tax system. If you take part in the survey, you do not need to answer all the questions – you can just leave certain questions blank if they do not apply or you do not have any comments.

Formal written submission

Should you find that the questionnaire does not provide you with the space to provide your full feedback, you could instead submit a formal written response to the OTS’s call for evidence.

Making a formal written response can be daunting and you may have never done anything like this before. Don’t worry! Some tips for completing a formal written response are:

• The call for evidence contains 20 questions. You are not expected to answer all of them or even any of them – it is fine to just send in bullet points or something in a free format if you want.
• There is no right or wrong format, however it is helpful to number your paragraphs.
• Just saying things naturally, in your own words, can be very powerful.

Write to us

LITRG will be making a written submission to the call for evidence. If you have any comments or thoughts about points that you think we should make in response to the call for evidence, please feed them into us for consideration by 29 April 2022, via the Contact Us facility.

The OTS has set a deadline of 5 June 2022 for survey responses and written submissions