31st January 2023
This is a very quick post, while I am writing something more substantial on natural justice and ministerial sackings (which I have not finished in time to post today, sorry).
Tax law, like constitutional law, should be dull.
And so that tax law is currently interesting is a Bad Sign.
Tax policy – as opposed to tax law – should be interesting, but once the policy has been determined, the practical implementation of that policy should not be remarkable.
The current emphasis in political debate about ministerial compliance with tax law will not end well.
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I think you can generalise: the everyday application of any realm of law – contract law, tort law, trust law, land law, banking law, company law, regulatory law, IP law, ecclesiastical law, probate law, whatever – should be dull.
No doubt there will always be some strange people find even the dullest of topics interesting, but they should not be front page news.
Policy, yes. That is for politicians and other public actors. But law as it is practised and implemented? No.
The key word in your comment is “everyday”. If things are going to plan, then it should be dull most days. But there will always be odd cases, where there isn’t a simple decision to be made, and where the law isn’t clear.
Legislators can come up with 1000 diffferent applications of a law, and cover them, but the 1001st will be something that is “interesting”. The intersection of tax law, trusts and overseas domicile.
Well, I’d suggest that your examples – non dom tax status and the tax treatment of offshore trusts – are matters of policy which are quite interesting, and not just matters of routine application of the law.
But perhaps we can discern a difference between a matter that is “interesting” on an intellectual level – curious, complex, thought-provoking – and a matter that is “interesting” to journalists of different stripes or to the public more generally for different reasons.
Specifically, the annual tax returns of politicians should be dull, routine HMRC enquiries should be dull (except for the people concerned), and tax assessments – with or without interest or penalties – should be dull.
Right now, we seem to have a number of politicians in senior positions whose financial, business and tax affairs might be described as “interesting”, both to the technician and to the wider public.
Thank you Mr Green.
Tell that to the IRS.