One of the UK’s leading tax specialists, DSR Tax Claims, has called for changes to the taxation system to make it fairer for taxpayers, while also creating financial efficiencies.

DSR Tax Claims director David Redfern has urged the government to give consideration to proposals intended to make the taxation system fairer for a greater proportion of taxpayers than the current system, which often favours those better-off. The director encourages taxation reform as a method of benefitting a larger number of taxpayers, while also making annual savings worth billions of pounds.

Redfern has supported proposals to the current tax system called for by a number of parties, including recent suggestions from the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT).

The association made a number of suggested changes, including scrapping the marriage allowance, moving the responsibility for paying stamp duty to the seller rather than the buyer, along with a host of proposals directed at pension reform such as changing pension relief to a flat rate of 20 per cent.

Commenting, Redfern said: “It is time as a country to have potentially difficult conversations about how we want our taxation system to look in the future. As it stands at present, the system currently favours higher rate taxpayers disproportionately, and yet as the AAT have shown, simple and yet effective changes exist which would allow those benefits to be extended to basic rate taxpayers whilst also bringing in savings in excess of £25bn per year”.

However, he acknowledged that some of the proposals, particularly those surrounding pensions and marriage allowance, may be unpopular with the general public, but urged government to consider the taxation system with the purpose of supporting a “fairer society”.

“Whilst it is tempting to leave as is, the fact is that our current taxation system is unfair to many in our society. If we want an economy to grow and which benefits the majority, we need to make far-reaching structural changes to support that majority,” he added.

“If we take Marriage Allowance as an example, it is worth less than £300 per year to those who qualify and yet costs UK taxpayers, as a whole, nearly £400m per year. It is a shocking reflection on our society that another of the AAT suggestions is closing the gender gap – something that we should surely have tackled far better already.”

Redfern has called on the government to begin the consultation on how to improve the tax system immediately.

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