Parker’s Preferences Act for the Chop before Christmas

Responding to news that David Parker’s Tax Principles Reporting Act is due to be repealed under urgency, Taxpayers’ Union Policy Adviser, James Ross, said:

“David Parker claimed that his 7 ‘tax principles’ were universally agreed upon. Given the degree of backlash, it's clear these actually amounted to little more than the personal preferences of one man with very little idea of what effective legislation looks like.

“With such nebulous and subjective concepts as “equity” and “flexibility” being offered as pillars of the tax system without any prior public consultation whatsoever, this shameless power play was always destined to fall at the first hurdle. Politics aside, this poorly designed act simply could not work in practice.

“This act was nothing but an attempt to shut down democratic debate about what our tax system should look like. Trying to legally define Labour Party opinions as objective fact and hand the power to dictate tax policy to an unelected and unaccountable commissioner should never have been allowed to stand in a modern democracy.”