The complexity of tax simplification: The UK experience

Abstract

Complexity has long been a feature of taxation in the UK. For instance, the original Act of Parliament introducing the income tax in 1799 was a complex document of some 152 pages so that the government felt it necessary to issue a guide entitled A Plain, Short and Easy Description of the Different Clauses of the Income Tax so as to render it Familiar to the Meanest Capacity (Farnsworth, 1951, p. 15).