A comprehensive guide to UK tax law will be just short of 10,000 pages long, indicating the overly complex system governing start-ups, it has been claimed.
Published today by LexisNexis, the length of the annual Tolley’s Yellow Tax Handbook has become an unofficial benchmark of the intricacy of the UK taxation system.
With 40% more pages than the two-volume 2001 edition, this year’s guide has a folio count of 9,866 and runs over four volumes, representing the increasing levels of red tape businesses are forced to contend with, Lexis Nexis said.
In fact, the guide had to go through a major redesign to fit more words onto each page to avoid running to a staggering five volumes, the publisher revealed.
Mike Truman, tax expert, LexisNexis, commented: “The complexity of the UK tax system continues to be a challenge for most businesses.
“Even though the government is trying to make tax legislation easier to understand this does nothing to reduce the complexity of the underlying tax system.”
LexisNexis anticipates yet more tax legislation will symbolise Alastair Darling’s chancellorship, as measures announced in this year’s budget, including significant changes to business tax, are put into action.
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2007
