I was amused (but not surprised) to see that the most authoritative annual guide to UK Taxes - Tolley's Tax Guide - has had to reduce the typeface size used in printing, to keep it from spilling over 10,000 pages. In 2001 it was less than 6,000 pages.
On a serious point, the added complexity of the tax system has been caused by PM Brown, when as Chancellor he raised taxes by stealth to avoid big number increases in income tax and VAT. The result is that we have a very confusing and bureaucratic system which hits our international competitiveness and is often unfairest on the poorest in society.
Whatever the level of taxation we have, it would be an unambiguously good thing too have a simpler more straight forward system
