Tax 'bible' has doubled in size since 1997
7 Sep 09
The new edition of Tolley's Yellow Tax Handbook is more than double the size than when Lavour came to power 12 years ago, highlighting the growing complexity of the UK tax system and the impact of the government's recent attempts to introduce recession busting legislation
In 1997 Tolley's Yellow Tax Handbook, which contains the UK's main tax laws, had 4,998 pages in two volumes; the 2009 edition runs to 11,520 pages over four volumes.
The UK now has the longest tax code in the world. LexisNexis tax expert Mike Truman says; “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. 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. 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."