This week's opinion

On a late summer break from the hustle and bustle of the Taxation offices I have been re-reading one of my favourite books  1066 and All That. The humour still holds up well after almost 90 years. One of the book’s endearing qualities is the way tongue in cheek it divides up the kings and queens into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ – no shades of grey here.

I think it would make our lives much easier if the tax world were like that but with the greatest respect to those trying to reform the system I think we are forever stuck in a grey world.

Take the announcement about the U-turn over the abolition of class 2 National Insurance contributions. Surely that comes squarely into the ‘bad’ category at least for those who will still have to pay. But that is not the complete picture. Had these contributions...