This week's opinion: 18 March 2021

Another year – another Finance Bill. There was a time – when I was younger and keener – that I would read through the bill from beginning to end and hope to understand it all. 

Those days have long gone. Not only are modern bills monstrously long – and this one is no exception – but the complexity of the drafting, allied to the complex policy issues which underlie it means that unless you are an expert in every single aspect of the tax system your eyes are bound to glaze over many of the pages. Is there anybody out there who can consciously say that they have read, and understood, every word? 

Readers may say that this does not matter. So long as enough people understand each separate section that is enough: nobody can reasonably be expected to understand the whole thing. 

I suppose that must be true but it still bothers me. When faced with 30 more pages on hybrid mismatches – ‘what’s a hybrid, mummy?’ – I do feel uncomfortable that I have absolutely no idea what any of it means. 

But when I also find myself scratching my head over more than 100 pages of new legislation about such key topics as interest, penalties and information notices I do worry that we have got into a never-ending spiral of complexity from which there is no escape.

There was one moment of light relief from the bill. The first heading of Schedule 7 is ‘Meaning of tax’. The meaning of life, the universe and everything is child’s play compared to that philosophical conundrum.