This week's opinion

What is the significance of 357BLEA? No it is not my car registration number or the password to my online bank account! It is a section of the Finance Bill published on 8 September. It is a stark indication of how complex our tax system has become. This new section part of the new rules on cost-sharing arrangements relating to patents is an insertion into CTA 2010. When that Act first became law it had a simple elegant structure with each section having a straightforward number. Now after only seven years it is a mess and this latest addition only adds to the problems. I shudder to think what the section numbers will be like in another seven years if the pace of change continues at this rate – s 999 PLEASEHELP cannot be that far away.

There is a serious point here. As many...