A tax system should be simple enough for ordinary citizens to understand. But Britain's is so vast that even experts struggle to navigate it. The British tax code is now about twenty times longer than the Bible! This is not a mark of precision; it is evidence of a state that has steadily expanded its reach into every corner of economic life. Over the past century, UK tax legislation has grown from a relatively compact body of rules into a vast, convoluted mass of primary law, secondary legislation and guidance that runs to millions of words. This expansion has several predictable effects. First, it creates enormous compliance costs. Businesses and individuals must spend significant time and money on accountants, lawyers and tax software simply to understand and meet their obligations. These costs fall disproportionately on smaller firms and ordinary taxpayers who cannot afford specialist advice. Second, complexity is rarely neutral. Lengthy and opaque rules create opportunities for well-connected interests to secure favourable treatment through lobbying and special exemptions. What looks like technical detail is often the result of political bargaining. The more complicated the code becomes, the easier it is for powerful groups to shape it in their favour while ordinary citizens struggle to navigate it. Third, complexity concentrates power in the hands of the state and its bureaucracy. When rules are so intricate that only experts can interpret them, officials gain wide discretion in enforcement. This undermines the rule of law and makes arbitrary or selective application of the tax system more likely. A simpler, flatter tax code would be more transparent, cheaper to administer, and harder to manipulate. The current system’s extraordinary length is not an accident of bad drafting. It is the natural result of a government that has chosen to micro-manage economic activity through an ever-growing web of rules, incentives and penalties.