Tax complexity
A project exploring why tax is complex and how to measure complexity
Since it was set up in 2010, the Office of Tax Simplification has been carrying out an ongoing project looking at the reasons why tax is complex. In our first five years, we published a number of papers on the subject, available here
These papers include
- an analysis of the length of tax legislation, concluding there were effectively 6,102 pages of primary tax legislation in 2011
- a review of all 639 numerical thresholds in tax legislation in 2012
- several papers setting out how we were developing a “complexity index”, a tool to measure the relative complexity of different parts of the tax system
In June 2015 we published a paper setting out the lessons we have learnt about tax complexity so far, summarised in four principles for avoiding complexity:
- Ensure the proposed tax measure meets the policy aims
- Focus the measure carefully
- Design the measure to meet the aim
- Maintain the measure properly
Alongside these principles, we published a final version of our complexity index in the form of a spreadsheet, giving relative complexity scores for over 100 different parts of the UK tax system.
We plan to continue our complexity project in the new parliament, exploring other aspects of tax complexity including the link between tax avoidance and complexity, a look at drafting style and the way new technology could be used to reduce administrative complexity.