Pictured above: Andrew Shaw

The head of a leading national tax adviser has played down headlines over government plans to close dozens of tax loopholes next year.

Andrew Shaw, national tax managing partner of BTG Tax, said: "The headlines are disingenuous as many of the items under review are not loopholes, but are simply reliefs put in place for good purpose.

"However, the problem with UK tax legislation is that each new Finance Act adds another 300 or more pages to what is already the longest tax code in the world."

While successive chancellors and HMRC are always keen to add new tax rules, what they forget to do is to remove some of the legislation that dates back to the 19th century.

"So we have archaic rules to provide reliefs for horses, or coal provided to miners.

"The UK has never had a root and branch review of its tax legislation, which is why we now have multiple books containing more and more legislation that becomes ever more difficult for even the experts to understand.

"Much of it is never used but some of it is now outdated and needs to be replaced.

"After all, the definition of a higher paid employee remains anyone earning more than £8,500 per annum, and this has been the same since the 1970s. While wages and salaries have risen over 40 years, this definition has remained unaltered."

He pointed out that when this was introduced, employers probably only needed to report benefits for their most senior employees and directors whereas now they had to report the details for every full time employee.

"Picking up on press comment on Capital Gains Tax and how some expats are avoiding CGT when they move abroad - this is not a loophole.

"The original legislation allowed you to go non-resident for one year and escape CGT, but the rules were changed to make sure you had to leave for at least five complete tax years.

"Anyone doing so is likely to be resident in another country and will end up paying tax there," he pointed out.

According to a list published by HMRC, there are 87 different reliefs offered to those paying Inheritance Tax, including benefits for those passing on woodlands, foreign pensions and political donations.

There are said to be more than 200 different income tax allowances and a range of archaic reliefs on the import of angostura bitters and for those making "black beers".

"Nobody would argue that UK tax legislation needs simplifying but we simply have got to get away from the continual practice of adding layer on layer of regulation like some giant prize winning onion," said Mr Shaw.

"Otherwise, the Government is simply showboating and we will never see real progress until we throw out all the tax manuals and start again.

"UK tax legislation needs rewriting from scratch. Any other action will simply exacerbate the problem and we will once again be no further on."

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