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Where Taxpayers and Advisers Meet
Editorial - Tax: Size Does Matter
01/04/2012, by Mark McLaughlin CTA (Fellow) ATT TEP, Tax Articles - General
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Mark McLaughlin asks why does the Budget need to be so long?

A couple of weeks ago, prior to the Budget, I predicted: "Unfortunately, all bets are off for another huge Finance Bill this year - no change there".

Sadly, my prediction was correct. Finance Bill 2012 is an eye-watering 686 pages in length. In addition, the explanatory notes to the Finance Bill add a "mere" 508 pages to the bedtime reading of tax advisers.

The Government and HMRC constantly talk about simplification and transparency, but then act in competely the opposite way. HMRC's apparent obsession with plugging perceived loopholes in the tax legislation certainly doesn't help. One well-known commentator recently complained that some of the press are too quick to criticise HMRC. Well, if that observation was aimed at me, I am happy to disappoint them. In my opinion, a Finance Bill approaching 700 pages is totally unacceptable.

In the long term, will the Office of Tax Simplification, or a general anti-avoidance rule, or initiatives such as the proposal to simplify income tax for small businesses, result in shorter Finance Bills and a reduction in the volume of existing legislation? One would like to think so. But then again, it would perhaps be unwise to bet on it if the Government and HMRC continue in the same vein.

Best wishes,

Mark McLaughlin 

Managing Editor

For a comprehensive overview of the main developments in the 2012 Budget, see Taxbriefs Budget 2012 Report

About The Author

Mark McLaughlin is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, a Fellow of the Association of Taxation Technicians, and a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. From January 1998 until December 2018, Mark was a consultant in his own tax practice, Mark McLaughlin Associates, which provided tax consultancy and support services to professional firms throughout the UK.

He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation’s Capital Gains Tax & Investment Income and Succession Taxes Sub-Committees.

Mark is editor and a co-author of HMRC Investigations Handbook (Bloomsbury Professional).

Mark is Chief Contributor to McLaughlin’s Tax Case Review, a monthly journal published by Tax Insider.

Mark is the Editor of the Core Tax Annuals (Bloomsbury Professional), and is a co-author of the ‘Inheritance Tax’ Annuals (Bloomsbury Professional).

Mark is Editor and a co-author of ‘Tax Planning’ (Bloomsbury Professional).

He is a co-author of ‘Ray & McLaughlin’s Practical IHT Planning’ (Bloomsbury Professional)

Mark is a Consultant Editor with Bloomsbury Professional, and co-author of ‘Incorporating and Disincorporating a Business’.

Mark has also written numerous articles for professional publications, including ‘Taxation’, ‘Tax Adviser’, ‘Tolley’s Practical Tax Newsletter’ and ‘Tax Journal’.

Mark is a Director of Tax Insider, and Editor of Tax Insider, Property Tax Insider and Business Tax Insider, which are monthly publications aimed at providing tax tips and tax saving ideas for taxpayers and professional advisers. He is also Editor of Tax Insider Professional, a monthly publication for professional practitioners.

Mark is also a tax lecturer, and has featured in online tax lectures for Tolley Seminars Online.

Mark co-founded TaxationWeb (www.taxationweb.co.uk) in 2002.

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