Brit tax laws rulebook 10 times longer than Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’
By ANISaturday, February 12, 2011
LONDON - Length of the handbook detailing Britain’s tax laws has increased more than two-fold since 1997, and is now almost ten times as long as the famous novel ‘War And Peace.’
A study has revealed that the complete guide to tax legislation is a 11,520 pages-up from 4,998 when Labour came to power more than 13 years ago, reports the Daily Mail.
By contrast, Leo Tolstoy’s famously long novel about Russian life during the Napoleonic Wars comes in at 1,204 pages.
A report by the Taxpayers’ Alliance has laid bare the impenetrable thicket of tax rules facing businesses and households.ven the latest individual guides to corporation, income, and capital gains tax are each longer than Tolstoy’s epic.
The Tolley’s Corporation Tax guide is 1,895 pages-some 185 per cent longer than a decade ago. And at 1,801 pages, the guide to income tax would take the world’s fastest reader 19 hours to read aloud.
A Taxpayers’ Alliance spokesman said the system was now “so complex families and businesses are often not aware how much tax they are actually paying.”
“It’s time to set out a serious plan to drastically simplify the tax code,” he said. (ANI)
