Chancellor George Osborne has set up a new Office of Tax Simplification to hack through confusing rules and regulations across all industries.

The OTS will look at construction’s CIS scheme which has caused headaches for contractors for years and led to widespread false self-employment in the industry.

The OTS will undertake two initial reviews over the coming year concentrating on tax reliefs and small business tax simplification.

A revamp of business taxes will be presented in the 2011 Budget.

George Osborne said: “The previous Government took a complex tax system and made it even worse. A decade of meddling and intervening has made the tax affairs of millions of families and businesses across the UK extremely complicated. We need to sort out this mess.”

One contractor told the Enquirer: “No-one really likes the CIS system but we have had so many reviews that to start all over again would create a real upheaval.”