The Tax Law Rewrite Project

Article by Adam Broke, CIOT President 1989-1990. This article appeared in the December 2005 issue of Tax Adviser. Cynics claim that the making of tax law has become too serious a matter to be left to the politicians. For the politicians it is too central to let anyone have a hand on the tiller. For, they would say, how else is the state to be governed? If the means are not voted, the ends cannot be achieved.

And therein lies the nub of the tussle over complexity. The political processes by which tax law is made operate on timetables which allow for little consultation and debate. Parliament has other things to do. It cannot wait for niceties and in any case much new tax law affects only a comparatively small number of taxpayers, whether corporate or individual, and then only at the margin.

Technical Department
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December 2005 by Adam Broke