Some would say that tax becomes ever more complicated, making it harder and harder to understand precisely what is going on. Pah, says the Treasury, what nonsense!

But the department itself had a bit of a blind spot during the Budget.

The headline cut in the corporation tax rate was not extended to

North Sea

When TS asked the Treasury about it, the response was along the lines of: ‘no, don’t think so, haven’t heard of that one.’ When the official duly checked, lo and behold, the story was true. So let’s not hear any of this nonsense about the tax system being simple and easy to understand, shall we?