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Continual tinkering with the tax regime is not helpful, warns Mark McLaughlin.

There is an excellent article by Mike Truman in the latest Taxation magazine. In that article ('Stop Messing About'), Mike sees an unfortunate connection between Chancellor George Osborne and the late Kenneth Williams, whose well-known catchphrase gave the article its title. Mike's article broadly highlights changes in the approach of the Government to various tax related procedures and policies.

One of the ways in which the Chancellor has been "messing about" as highlighted in Mike's article is the Annual Investment Allowance' (AIA) for Capital Allowances purposes. I was delighted at the Chancellor's initial announcement of the proposed increase in AIA from £25,000 to £250,000 from 1 January 2013. However, that delight soon turned to dismay after discovering that this increase is only for a temporary period of two years. As Mike points out, the AIA has been going up and down like a roller coaster since it was introduced in April 2008.

It is tinkering of this nature that results in unnecessary complication and potential confusion for taxpayers. It also contributes to the annual increase in the volume of legislation, which is another of my bugbears (how many tax practitioners remember the good old days of own 'yellow' and one 'orange' tax handbook?).

The Finance Bill 2013 draft clauses and explanatory notes published on 11 December amount to an eye-watering 1,074 pages, and actually managed to break my laser printer cartridge when I tried printing them off at home the other night! On top of that, the overview of the draft legislation document is a further 296 pages.

But that is only the start. The Chancellor's December statement is a mini-Budget in all but name, so I suspect that a further raft of tax changes will be announced on 20 March 2013. The eventual size of Finance Bill 2013 is anybody's guess.

I suppose one could argue that all this is a 'good thing' for tax practitioners such as me. However, I pity unrepresented UK taxpayers, for whom ignorance of the law is no excuse against an error when trying to get their tax returns right, with the threat of penalties ominously hanging over them for getting their returns wrong. So much for a simpler tax system, despite the best efforts of the Office of Tax Simplification.

On behalf of everyone at TaxationWeb, I take this opportunity to wish you a very happy festive season, and a peaceful and prosperous 2013.

Best wishes,,

Mark McLaughlin

Managing Editor