Increasing Paperwork - I

WE PROBABLY ALL have our own favourite examples that illustrate the increasing complexity of tax legislation. To demonstrate the legislation's labyrinthine leanings I often cite the provisions in Taxes Management Act 1970 that deal with the Inland Revenue's rights to obtain documents.

In 1970 there were just two sections devoted to this (and one of those dealt only with transactions by stockjobbers a term that became practically redundant following the City's Big Bang changes in 1986). However there are currently ten such sections and one new schedule not forgetting the new subsections that have been added to the original two sections. What makes these current ten sections even more complex however is their interdependency.

The first of this two-part article summarises the Revenue's powers to obtain information; the second part considers the information which need not be supplied to the Revenue. All statutory...