This appears to be an old failing. King Solomon wrote something similar a few thousand years back
God made mankind upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes (Eccliesiates 7 verse 29).
More recently PG Wodehouse described one of his characters (Mrs Gedge in "Hot Water") in the offices of her London lawyers
His [the lawyer's] operations on her behalf in the matter of evasion of English Income Tax had dissatisfied her, and she was talking pretty straight to him
I don't think Solomon's tax rules were quite as complex as the rules we suffer in the UK. I am almost certain he would not have had rules requiring taxpayers to own up to using schemes which had previously been reported and numbered by the tax collectors.
David Hartnett (permanent secretary for tax) tried to convince an audience of tax advisers a little while ago that the rules have to be complicated so that the tax system is fair. The audience was not convinced.
We seem to be piling complexity on top of the existing rules.
And the result? Hours spent trying to make sure we understand the new pension tax rules which are full of complications which will affect one tax year only and maybe find a way to avoid the rules biting out clients quite so much.
Could we come up with something simpler? In this day and age we are probably bound to have complex rules simply because we are taxed by one country at a time when we can easily move to another or at the least oversee business or investment in another country. Bring on the single World Tax - I am sure that would be easier.
(Cue song - "Fly me to the moon")
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