Over the ten years since New Labour came to power, Tolley’s Tax Guide – the tax practitioners’ bible – has doubled in size. Tax is a complex and labyrinthine nightmare, as Chancellor Alistair Darling proved with his recent capital gains tax (CGT) kerfuffle. His announcements, retractions, reversals and alterations made clear that even those brave enough to attempt an understanding of the system will be left lost once more when, inevitably, the government changes the rules.

The internet revolution
Ten years ago, had you wanted the answer to a tax question, you either subscribed to Tolley’s (expensive) or went to see an accountant (very expensive). However, in the digital age, the internet is the source many turn to for information. If you have a question about tax – be it income tax, road tax, council tax, capital gains tax, stamp duty or inheritance tax (IHT) – and access to the internet, the chances are you will find an answer somewhere.

But this can be a daunting prospect. Type the word “tax” into Google (pages from the UK only - tax legislation does not travel) and it brings up 1.6 million results. The top two results are definitely useful: HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), www.hmrc.gov.uk, and Directgov’s Beginner’s Guide to Tax, at www.direct.gov.uk. If you are wondering what happened to the Inland Revenue, it no longer exists, having been replaced by HMRC, formed on 18 April 2005 following the merger of the Inland Revenue and HM Customs & Excise.

The government runs both sites, so you will not find much advice about tax avoidance or loopholes. The HMRC site explains the tax regime as prescribed by the law.
It brooks no compromise in the language used, is a dry read, sometimes confusing to navigate around and was obviously written by civil servants for tax practitioners rather than Joe Public.

Directgov is more ‘touchy feely’ and includes topics such as crime, justice and citizens’ rights. The part you want is ‘Money, tax and benefits’, which includes sections not only on tax but also on tax credits, benefits, managing money and personal debt.

Speeding up the process
Ironically, if you are looking for help getting to grips with that self-assessment form, these are the sites to access as they are the most helpful in guiding you through the form filling. However, this is not charity, it is realpolitik: HMRC collects money on behalf of the Exchequer. The quicker you fill in the form, the quicker it can send you a bill.

But, self-assessment aside, with these government sites you just get information. They do not give you any tools to tailor the information to your circumstances. And perhaps one of the most common reasons to check with an online tax resource is to find out about the tax on your own salary, especially if you are considering moving jobs and wonder what impact a change in salary will have on your take-home pay.

A new website to help people understand the impact of the 2008 tax changes has been launched by Standard Life. The content on www.standardlife.co.uk/taxchanges includes a salary calculator to show how net pay is affected, ISA changes explained in detail, case studies, a comprehensive Q&A section and a webcast to explain the tax changes.

‘We’ve launched the website to help guide people through the maze of changes that are coming in April 2008, and these will have an effect on people’s pay and pension payments,’ says John Lawson, head of pensions policy at Standard Life. ‘This is a great opportunity to review your finances, make appropriate plans and possibly take advantage of these changes.’

A range of services
Another good all-purpose website is www.digita.com/taxcentral. Digita is a supplier of practice software to the accountancy profession, so it uses its website
as a shop window to market its products. However, it has a lot of free content that is very useful, not least its tax calculators – payslip checker (the accuracy of which I checked with my own payslips), tax code checker, rebate estimator and student loan calculator – as well as calculators for pension tax relief, annuities, IHT and even company car benefit, to see how much having a company car will affect your salary. If you are looking for a one-stop shop for online tax guidance, then this site is hard to beat. Another useful site for investors wanting to work out the tax implications for their financial planning, with tax calculators for things like CGT liabilities, is www.taxcalc.co.uk.

We all know that the internet is a godsend for those looking for a mortgage, a credit card, a cheap loan and a whole host of other financial services. There is a huge number of price comparison sites on the web, and they are all much of a muchness, making their money taking a small margin known as a ‘referral’ for being
the middlemen between you and the financial services provider.

One honourable exception is www.moneysavingexpert.com. Although it does get referral fees, it also gives some great money-saving tips.

Saving on council tax
One such section is about saving council tax which, for most people, is just a lavish charge to get your bins emptied. Unlike some sites that might give you a cursory description of council tax and hint at vague ways you might be able to save, this site has a logical procedure to work through to see if you can get your property rerated to a lower band and save money.

The website has lots of useful information, such as house prices from 1991 (when property was valued for banding even though the tax itself didn’t come in until 1993) and a step-by-step procedure to work out if you could save council tax. There’s even an introductory guide to reclaiming council tax presented by the site’s founder, Martin Lewis.

If you are curious about whether you are entitled to any reduction on your council tax because of your personal circumstances (for instance if you live in rented accommodation), then check out www.entitledto.co.uk. The site claims that people are missing out on benefits and tax credits worth more than £5 billion a year and it can help ‘make sure you get what is yours’. This site is free, and no personal information (such as your name, address, national insurance (NI) number, etc) is required.

As well as being a good all-round site, www.taxationweb.co.uk – a free database of UK tax information for accountants and the general public – has some good features written by tax professionals on CGT, IHT and various property taxes, especially useful if you are a buy-to-let landlord.

TaxationWeb stresses that it is not a firm of tax advisers (and asks not to be contacted with questions), but rather an online tax portal. Unusually – but very usefully – it also has a tax tips forum, where you can upload a question and accountants, tax advisers and others are invited to offer practical help and advice in a free and open forum.

All of which raises an important question: if you are searching online for tax information, how can you be sure that the website providing it is accurate? The short answer is: you can’t. Many sites just repackage information they have ‘cut and pasted’ from the HMRC site. If the site is owned by a supplier of software to the accountancy profession, there is a good chance the information will be accurate. Such a company is more likely to put online tools at your disposal than an accountancy practice that would prefer to have you as a paying customer rather than provide services for free.

Some sites encourage you visit with the promise of information, only to present you with a book to buy on the subject, or else an online form to fill in with personal information such as NI number or date of birth and a promise that your tax query will be answered. If asked online for this information, do not submit it. Most tax advisers request this information only at a face-to-face meeting.

Getting extra help
If your tax affairs are hideously complex and you have a substantial amount of money to shield from the Chancellor’s grasp, then it is worth engaging the help of a tax professional, either an accountant or a specialist IFA, rather than doing it yourself. The internet can help you here too. For an IFA, www.unbiased.co.uk is run by IFA Promotion Ltd, the industry body responsible for promoting independent financial advice in the UK.

Through the site, you can search for details of independent financial advisers close to where you live or work from around 9,000 IFA locations (covering over 16,500 registered individuals, representing more than 90 per cent of the UK IFA market). In 2007, over 600,000 consumers used the site to find a local IFA.

For a chartered tax adviser (CTA), the Chartered Institute of Taxation – the professional body for CTAs – has a dedicated website: www.tax.org.uk. The site has a facility to search for a CTA in your area.