Website reviews

Reviews of sites relating to tax law

The Journal, January 2003, page 37

www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk

This of course is the most obvious starting point for all sorts of information on taxation. The IR site is huge. It deals with most main areas of UK taxation with the obvious exceptions of VAT (go to www.hmce.gov.uk) and council tax (no equivalent site but try www.counciltaxreform.org for basic information, and discussion in England about reform there). The site is comprehensive and well designed. A recent study of government websites found this one to have a number of errors (but my experience is that they are few indeed). The site enables easy searching for information, forms and booklets. A persistent and highly desirable characteristic of the site is that the browser can usually obtain information at a variety of levels ranging from basic overviews (“what is self-assessment”) to detailed information on the minutiae of tax law. The site provides downloadable copies of all IR publications and most of the main tax forms, at least for income tax. The IR is also responsible for tax credits and that part of the site is clearly signposted from the home page. It is now possible to file income tax and corporation tax returns online and the site enthusiastically promotes this service as “quick” and “convenient” (though not all who have tried to do so would agree…). The links are all there if you fancy having a go.

Subjective Rating (where 5 is excellent and 1 is poor and no rating indicate that that category has not been assessed)

Usefulness 5/5

Site design 4/5

Updating frequency 4/5

www.uktax.demon.co.uk

This is a neat wee site. It styles itself as a “UK Taxation Directory, an independently compiled catalogue of WWW sites and material of potential interest to tax professionals and others seeking on-line information on UK tax matters”. The design is plain and simple and instantly accessible. It does what it says on the packet. The browser can search for sites: by source (for example ‘professional bodies’, ‘tax profession’, ‘publishers’, ‘tax software’, ‘recruitment’) or by subject (for example pre-budget 2002 report’, ‘2002 budget’, ‘legislation’, ‘IR35’, ‘summaries of tax rates’). Unfortunately, no indication of the content of the sites are given so the browser has to take pot luck to an extent. There is also a page of links regarding international tax issues. This is a good place to start if the information that you are looking for is not on the IR site.

Usefulness 4/5

Site design 3/5

Updating frequency 4/5

www.tax-news.com

Put on your sunglasses or adjust your monitor settings for this rather bright and busy site. Well worth the visit though if you want to keep up-to-date with national and international tax news. The front page carries loads of summaries of very recent news stories on all manner of tax issues. The summaries are all linked to a fuller version of the story. Links from the front page enable the browser to focus on particular countries, particularly off-shore tax havens. The news can be categorised in various ways (such as ‘e-commerce’, ‘off-shore’, ‘political and economic’). There is a long list of ‘resources’; mostly comprising technical reports on taxation issues from around the world. There is an option to receive a newswire by e-mail (£120 per year) and a free trial option. The news seems to be updated on weekdays only. The parent site is www.lowtax.net which specialises in news and information about off-shore tax havens (there is little shortage of them it appears) and provides all manner of information about such places.

Usefulness 3/5

Site design 3/5

Updating frequency 4/5

www.taxbar.com

This appropriately named site is that of Gray’s Inn Tax Chambers, all members of which specialise in tax law.  Although much of the site (predictably) is given over to information about the chambers and its members, there is much of interest to the practitioner. There is a long series of summaries of tax cases with links to the full judgment, its usefulness limited by the fact that only cases in which members of the chambers appeared are given. There is also a series of articles by members of the chambers of a variety of tax issues, not unfortunately as well organised as they could be. However, it’s all free and there might be something useful for the practitioner not elsewhere available.

Usefulness 2/5

Site design 3/5

Updating frequency 3/5

www.tax.org.uk

The Chartered Institute of Taxation has now got this desirably named site. The Institute claims to be “the leading professional body for taxation in the UK”. The most obvious use of this site is to track down members of the Institute and gain more information about the site: both of which are easy to do here. The other main useful facility (at least for non-members of the CIOT) is the news and consultations section which give fairly up-to-date information on such matters including the text of the responses of the CIOT to official consultations. For the other professional organisations associated with tax matters, see www.uktax.demon.co.uk

Usefulness 2/5

Site design 4/5

Updating frequency 3/5

www.taxaid.org.uk

This site may not be of great use to the tax professional, but it may be useful nevertheless (perhaps to those who cannot afford the fees…). Taxaid, funded by the industry, is a charitable organisation which offers free tax advice to people in financial need, promotes public understanding of tax and presses for a simpler and fairer tax system. The site gives more details about its work and the services that it offers as well as basic information about the tax system. The tax debt handbook (for those who cannot pay their tax bill) is free online. Other publications are available at a small cost.

Usefulness 3/5

Site design 4/5

Updating frequency 2/5