ARTICLE · 26 APRIL 2012

Tax Update - Monday 23 April 2012

Smith & Williamson

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On Monday 16 April 2012, the OTS published a short paper on the length of tax legislation. The paper concludes that length of legislation is a factor that contributes to complexity, but the issue is more complex than a simple page count.

United KingdomTax

Richard Mannion

1. General news

1.1. Office of Tax Simplification and the complexity of tax legislation

On Monday 16 April 2012, the OTS published a short paper on the length of tax legislation. The paper concludes that length of legislation is a factor that contributes to complexity, but the issue is more complex than a simple page count. Although there are 17,795 pages in the Tolley's Yellow and Orange books for 2011/12, the OTS found that on closer analysis there are "only" 6,102 pages of substantive direct and indirect tax legislation.

www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/ots_taxcomplexityproject.htm

www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/ots_length_legislation_paper.pdf

1.2. Treasury Select Committee report on Budget 2012

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