Tax code swells by 150% in 12 years

LexisNexis has found the UK's tax code weighs in at double the amount of pages it did in 1997, when the Labour government came into power.

On the the launch of the 2009 edition of its tax guide, Tolley’s Yellow Tax Handbook, the business information company said the current issue contained 11,520 pages, compared to 4,998 pages twelve years ago.

Tax experts said the significant increase highlights the growing complexity of the UK tax system and the impact of the government’s recent attempts to introduce recession-busting legislation.

LexisNexis tax expert Mike Truman said: "The complexity of the UK tax system has been increasing the burden of compliance on businesses and individuals alike for many years.

"Although initially Alastair Darling looked as if he might bring simplification to the system as Chancellor, it seems to have been a false dawn, and we have seen little evidence of the tide of legislation ebbing.

"While the end of the tax law rewrite programme will allow some transitional provisions to fall out of the code, there has been a tremendous increase in the pages of legislation devoted to revenue powers and anti-avoidance."

The UK now has the longest tax code in the world, creating numerous problems of interpretation, understanding, and locating legislation, Lexis Nexis warned.

"There is a desperate need to curb the temptation of all Chancellors to meddle with the tax system, and to focus instead on removing unnecessary complexity," added Truman.

"At the moment, despite the stated desire to simplify, there is no sign of this happening in practice; indeed, we are moving in the wrong direction."