John Snape

Tax law : complexity, politics and policymaking

This essay introduces the various contributions to a special issue of the journal. Its overall theme is the variety of ways in which “tax complexity” performs political functions. The essay establishes the principal meaning of tax complexity as “rule complexity” and places each contribution within the controversies on the subject. Highly abstract and technical tax law is seen as foundational to the neoliberal regulatory state. Tax law has a complexity exacerbated by the incorporation of other regulatory systems, by arguments over linguistic indeterminacy and by a disconnection between wider political debate and those closely involved in developing and drafting tax legislation. An analysis of the relationship between the political ordering of the regulatory state and the phenomenon of tax complexity is followed by a discussion of political debate and the significance of legal formalism. The essay concludes by speculating on the custodianship of definitive interpretation in the tax law context.

Environmental tax proposals : analysis and evaluation

This article analyses and evaluates current government proposals for five new environmental taxes or charges: an aggregates tax, a climate change levy, workplace parking levies, road user charging schemes and a pesticides tax. It defines taxes as unrequited payments to general government, charges being, by contrast, payments which are requited. Environmental taxes or charges are those whose base is a physical unit, or a proxy for a physical unit, of something which has a proven negative impact on the environment when used or released. Both environmental taxes and charges are economic instruments for environmental protection and, as such, must satisfy nine basic criteria before they can be said to operate satisfactorily. An aggregates tax is not a worthwhile environmental tax in the light of these criteria. A climate change levy, although worthy, is misguided in a number of important respects, and is also, on the whole, not a worthwhile environmental tax. It is too early to say whether a pesticides tax is worthwhile in these terms. It is unclear whether workplace parking levies are worthwhile environmental taxes, while road user charging schemes are unlikely to be so. The governments environmental tax programme has been damaged by political, rather than strictly environmental, considerations.

Book Review: The Economic ConstitutionProsserTony, The Economic Constitution. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014, pp. 304, ISBN 9780199644537, £63.00 (hbk).

King, not as a recipe but as a conceptual tool to assess the outcome of case law. As a matter of fact, there are several examples of such a use in the book. This might sound paradoxical, implying that courts can do the right (or wrong) thing without us being capable of knowing whether they act deliberately or not. However, it seems plausible to suggest that doctrinal critique of case law conducted using King’s incrementalist model might be normatively effective to increase courts’ awareness regarding their role in an inter-institutional enterprise, even in an environment less prepared to use principles of judicial restraint. These observations are evidently not a criticism to the book’s main arguments and tenets. They reflect instead just a few of the many reflections that the work of Jeff King has suggested to the author of this review. Only very good books do such things.

Tax law aspects of adopting and operating green transport plans

This paper seeks to analyse the tax law aspects of adopting and operating green transport plans, both for the employer and the employee. The author has attempted to present the analysis in a way accessible to non-tax specialists. The paper also seeks to evaluate the extent to which current tax law and practice may assist, prevent or simply be a neutral factor in the adoption and operation of a green transport plan. The importance of the analysis is reflected in recent legislative changes and a recent statement of government policy on transport.†