Office Of Tax Simplification Finalizes Complexity Index

by Robert Lee, Tax-News.com, London

25 June 2015

The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) has finalized its complexity index, a spreadsheet tool for analyzing and measuring the relative complexity of the UK tax system.

The OTS will use the index to identify future projects and to monitor changes in complexity in different areas of tax.

The spreadsheet divides the tax system into 107 areas and assigns to each area values for ten different complexity factors. Six of these values relate to "intrinsic complexity" and four to the "impact of complexity." These are then combined into a single value for each, ranging between one and ten – ten being the most complex.

The values have been provisionally filled in by combining the professional judgements of the OTS's five staff. The OTS said that, as this group does not have experience of every part of the tax system, some of the values may be inaccurate. It intends to ask a wider group of people to help populate the spreadsheet in the coming months.

Please enter your email address to join the Tax-News.com mailing list. View previous newsletters.

To manage your mailing list preferences, please click here »