On 10 August 2016, HMRC published a consultation document entitled Simplification of the tax and national insurance treatment of termination payments (www.bit.ly/2bgCR74). This contains the government’s response to the consultation exercise launched in July 2015, and sets out the changes to the current rules which the government is proposing to make. It contains draft legislation giving effect to the proposed changes, and requests comments on this. The express aim of the proposed changes is to simplify the current position. However, the eight pages of draft legislation suggest that the opposite might well be the result.
