I wonder to what extent tax codes are spaghetti towers—every time someone finds a loophole a new bit of tax code gets added to close it without considering how to make a coherent whole. This would explain how the uk tax code runs to >10,000 pages
Having looked into this, it’s only partly an issue of spaghetti towers. The more important reason that you get absurd page counts, however, is that tax codes are written in legalese. I saw the same thing happen when I worked in equity derivatives pricing, where a simple options contract for a call can easily be described in (at most) 10 lines of code, or expressed as a one-line equation. Instead, however, the legal terms are actually written as this 188 page pamphlet; https://www.theocc.com/components/docs/riskstoc.pdf which is (technically but not enforced to be a) legally required reading for anyone who wants to purchase an exchange traded option. And don’t worry—it explicitly notes that it doesn’t cover the actual laws governing options, for which you need to read the relevant US code, or the way in which the markets for trading them work, or any of the risks.
I also thought of tax, and I think it is probably a good example. What is especially confusing about tax is that, for some reason, whenever anyone has an idea they add on a new bit, rather than removing an old one.
ISAs are an obvious example of this. They basically introduce a subsystem that bypasses the normal taxation system in a limited way. But a similar effect could have been introduced much more simply by just raising the tax threshold in the main system.
Extending that the legislation and law in general seems appropriate as well. I wonder if one contrasts and compares slice of time views of both common law regimes and statutory law regimes if there would be any differences.
I wonder to what extent tax codes are spaghetti towers—every time someone finds a loophole a new bit of tax code gets added to close it without considering how to make a coherent whole. This would explain how the uk tax code runs to >10,000 pages
Having looked into this, it’s only partly an issue of spaghetti towers. The more important reason that you get absurd page counts, however, is that tax codes are written in legalese. I saw the same thing happen when I worked in equity derivatives pricing, where a simple options contract for a call can easily be described in (at most) 10 lines of code, or expressed as a one-line equation. Instead, however, the legal terms are actually written as this 188 page pamphlet; https://www.theocc.com/components/docs/riskstoc.pdf which is (technically but not enforced to be a) legally required reading for anyone who wants to purchase an exchange traded option. And don’t worry—it explicitly notes that it doesn’t cover the actual laws governing options, for which you need to read the relevant US code, or the way in which the markets for trading them work, or any of the risks.
I also thought of tax, and I think it is probably a good example. What is especially confusing about tax is that, for some reason, whenever anyone has an idea they add on a new bit, rather than removing an old one.
ISAs are an obvious example of this. They basically introduce a subsystem that bypasses the normal taxation system in a limited way. But a similar effect could have been introduced much more simply by just raising the tax threshold in the main system.
Extending that the legislation and law in general seems appropriate as well. I wonder if one contrasts and compares slice of time views of both common law regimes and statutory law regimes if there would be any differences.