Will Mr Osborne reflect the more optimistic outlook in the Autumn Statement?

The Chancellor’s Autumn Statement will be given on 5 December (it was going to be 4 December but has been put back a day to allow the Prime Minister time to return from a trade mission). The Autumn Statement is now almost as important as the Budget; indeed, I would argue even more so. A few days after the Statement, the draft clauses of the 2014 Finance Bill will be published, and these will then be subject to various consultations before they are enshrined in law in the 2014 Finance Act, later next summer. But, and this is a big but, many of the proposals are likely to be effective from the date of the Autumn Statement. So we will be in limbo-land; we’ll have some idea as to what the new law might be, but no certainty. And they say that the life of a tax adviser is easy….

So, what would I like to see Mr Osborne tackle?

If the economic outlook really is as good as pundits would now have us believe, I’d like to see a mild relaxation of the fiscal purse strings. Nothing dramatic, but an easing in certain areas. Maybe an extension of the NI holiday to encourage employers to recruit more staff. Maybe an above inflationary increase in the personal allowance, to take more people out of the tax net completely. Small businesses would become more competitive if the VAT registration threshold was lifted – perhaps to £100,000 annual turnover.

Personally, I would love to see a simplification of the tax reliefs available for the investment in plant and machinery. The capital allowances rules have been tinkered with so many times in recent years that we’ve lost sight of the basic principle of encouraging investment in capital equipment, surely an effective enabler of long-term employment and success?

And I couldn’t write this without returning to my annual gripe. Please will HMRC get in touch with the real world and accept that the vast majority of taxpayers simply want an easy life, and to pay the tax that is legally due. Let’s have simplicity, fair administration of the tax system that we are stuck with, and yes, on occasions, cut a bit of slack for those trying to comply but sometimes getting it wrong.