Alex Hawkes

The thing that has surprised me and depressed me most about tax over the last three years has been the power of the tax lobby.

By that I mean the voices arguing, persistently and without reflection, that corporate tax should be lowered or that some new tax applied to wealthy individuals should be watered down or dropped.

Of course the tax industry is hugely diverse, with a variety of opinions, but the loudest voice always seems to speak on behalf of the wealthy and the privileged.

Perhaps I’m being naïve to expect anything else, but shouldn’t tax advisers have some greater sense of responsibility to the tax system, or to society as a whole?

This is, I know, the kind of argument that makes many advisers turn puce with rage, but they should realise that the monotone demands of the CBI, the Institute of Directors and even the accountancy institutes create as much cynicism and ill-feeling.

I think in some cases this is caused by the media. The CBI’s views are nowhere near as shallow and one-dimensional as the papers would sometimes have you believe.

And, in part, tax stories rarely have much balance because HM Revenue & Customs finds it much harder than the private sector to get its point across.

The problem, essentially, is that the tax industry is all too often on the wrong side of the argument.

Non-doms? A good thing. Corporate tax? Should be lowered. Tax havens? A stony silence.

Of course, there are arguments to be made for all of those points, but not all of the time and everywhere you look.