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    NOTES

    The Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Bill received Royal Assent as the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 on 6th March 2003


    This Act (725 sections and 8 schedules, no less) is part of the official "tax law rewrite" project which started in 1996. The aim of the project as noted in the introduction to the Act when a Bill "is to rewrite all (or most) of the UK's existing primary direct tax legislation to make it clearer and easier to use, without changing the law (apart from minor, identified, changes)."

    This is the second Act to be completed under the tax rewrite project. The first was enacted as the Capital Allowances Act 2002.

    Rewrite Acts are not the same as consolidation Acts. They are processed through a special procedure (pursuant to a House of Commons procedure committee report of 30th January). This provides for the rewrite to be examined without debate on fiscal policy by a joint committee of both houses known as the Second Reading committee.

    There are official explanatory notes to the Income Tax (Earnings And Pensions) Act 2003 and also a useful Table of Origins available on the government web-sites.

    Important new reporting requirements relating to employee share schemes and other employee related share and option transactions are inserted into the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 (eg IT(EP)A 2003 s.421J) by Finance Act 2003 sch 22 (see notes at Tax/share schemes ).

    The Budget speech on 17th March 2004 noted that there will be some tidying up of minor errors discovered in the Act (see Inland Revenue budget notes Rev BN36 of 17th March 2004).

    See also notes re new PAYE regulations (the replacement of the Income Tax (Employments) Regulations 1993 SI 1993/744 by the Income Tax (Pay As You Earn) Regulations 2003 SI 2003/2682) and electronic filing at Tax/a general introductory note .

    Also in relation to the "tax law rewrite" project see Acts of Parliament etc/Income Tax (Trading and Other Income) Act 2005 .

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    updated March2003