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The Readability of Australia's Taxation Laws and Supplementary Materials: An Empirical Investigation
Author(s) -
Smith David,
Richardson Grant
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
fiscal studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.63
H-Index - 40
eISSN - 1475-5890
pISSN - 0143-5671
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-5890.1999.tb00016.x
Subject(s) - readability , tax law , legislation , public economics , economics , income tax , law , empirical research , test (biology) , double taxation , international taxation , law and economics , tax reform , political science , computer science , mathematics , paleontology , statistics , biology , programming language
‘Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.’ Albert EinsteinAbstract Australian taxation law has been criticised for many years for its difficulty to read and understand. The Tax Law Improvement Project (TLIP) was established in December 1993 to rewrite in plain language Australia's income tax legislation. The primary purpose of this study is to test empirically the effectiveness of attempts at simplifying the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 as amended. The study utilises empirical measures in analysing the level of readability of Australia's taxation laws. In doing so, it builds on earlier research, which applied similar methods in examining the New Zealand taxation simplification process. It was found that the sections of Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 sampled were slightly more readable than corresponding sections of Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 as amended, which is consistent with Wallschutzky's (1995) findings. Nevertheless, the results fall well short of acceptable bench‐marks, suggesting that the goal of simplification has not been achieved.