Gordon and his 8,300 pages of tax law

According to the joint report by the World Bank and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) British companies have to struggle with 8,300 pages of tax law, behind only India, and  the rulebook has doubled over the last decade. This is a clear sign of Gordon Brown's preference for complexity.

The Chancellor has a tendency for making even the best and seemingly straightforward ideas so complicated that they end up in a huge mess.  Most people who would benfit from these initiatives will be faced with more bureaucracy and complex procedures that many of them will give up fighting the system to gain benefits they are entitled to. The tax credit system cannot go unmentioned in this case.  

The morall of tax rules, as the Times reports it, is a huge burden on businesses and it is likely that non-compliance will increase through sheer ignorance. Companies have to direct huge amounts of their resources for being aware of all the details included in the bulky rulebook. These resources could be put to a much better use if the Chancellor would stop increasing the complexity of tax law and would let business to get on with their work.