How we try and help generally
We passionately believe that it is the responsibility of the tax law-makers to explain the consequences of the laws they enact to all people in the UK or overseas who need to know. However, for the wealthier part of the population there is a very well developed and generally high quality tax adviser population who are able to stand between the tax authorities and the citizen. Such tax advisers can interpret the official jargon, use the online facilities and generally protect the interests of the citizen.
However, when people only have a low income they cannot afford to pay for the services of a tax adviser. This is where the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group come in - we try and compensate for this inability to have your own personal adviser.
We do this in a number of ways:
- We encourage government agencies, primarily HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), to provide the very best information directed at those with the lowest incomes. Where they fail to do so we try and compensate with this website and by putting good tax material on other people’s websites where low income people may visit.
- We encourage the formation and growth of charities and social enterprises set up to help the low income population. We have supported TaxAid, the first of the specialist charities; we set up Tax Help for Older People which provides specialist help to low-income pensioners; and we help the largest network of advice agencies, Citizens Advice, by updating the tax material for their advisers and the general public.
- We try and help legislators to draft and enact tax law that imapcts appropriately on the low income population by giving them briefings on the legislation's effect on the low income population. We encourage them to improve the law for this group.
- We research particular areas that may be giving cause for concern and we try and persuade HMRC and other government departments to serve their low income populations better.
Who we try and help
We have identified five groups of the low-income population who we believe have the greatest need of additional help. They are pensioners, students, low income workers, those with disabilities (and those that care for them) and migrants.
Each of these groups has a separate section on our website.
We do not provide help to individuals, much as we would like to, because we do not have the resources. But we try and point people to where they can best help themselves. You can however provide us with help by giving us your experience through our Contact page.
What help can you expect to find?
We do not try to provide complete help for every visitor on our website. Bearing in mind that we believe it is a government’s responsibility to provide the citizen with an adequate explanation of its laws and processes, we only provide information where, in our opinion, they are failing to do that. We will point you to their material if we consider it is of good quality.
Quick links
You can go directly to where we provide help for the following types of people:
Pensioners
Students
Low-income workers
Disabled people and carers
Migrants
You can also go to areas by popular topic:
Tax credits
PAYE issues
Capital gains tax
Inheritance tax
You can also search by going to:
Our Google search engine (on any page at the top)
Our Site Map
