The 12-strong group, which comprises finance directors and heads of tax from some of Britain's biggest companies, will examine whether the corporate tax regime is still fit for purpose. It will also make recommendations about future policy to ensure UK companies remain competitive on the world stage.

It will be chaired by Charles Alexander, president of GE Capital Europe. Other members include Adam Little, head of UK tax and business tax services at BP, Ian Menzies-Conacher, senior taxation adviser at Barclays, and Mike Sufrin, director of tax at Rolls Royce.

The task force will hold its first meeting this month, and will produce its final report in nine months. Its recommendations will be put to the Treasury and the wider government and circulated internationally.

Richard Lambert, the CBI's director general, who brought the group together, said: "Tax may not be the most political or obvious of global challenges facing us, but it is very real. It needs to be high on the agenda of the next Chancellor if he or she wants to foster a successful, growing UK business sector that provides a reliable tax revenue stream over the long-term."

The Chancellor, Gordon Brown, cut the main corporation tax rate from 30 to 28 per cent in the Budget, but angered business by raising the small companies' rate from 19 to 22 per cent. The Engineering Employers' Federation has calculated that business will be paying nearly £12bn more in taxation in 2008-9 than when Labour came to power 10 years ago. The European Union average for corporation tax is 25 per cent.

The creation of the task force comes a week after the CBI called for a squeeze on public spending growth in the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review to pave the way for business tax cuts. The CBI says spending should growth by no more than 1.6 per cent per annum, less than the 2 per cent the Chancellor is planning.