14. Drafting Tax Law

Drafting tax law falls within the specialisation of drafting any law. In the case of tax law, particular factual considerations of how to organise sections, the type of language to be used that is comprehensible to the tax community, considerations of how simple the law should be to read without sacrificing necessary detail and more normative considerations regarding whether the law has achieved effectiveness in conveying the proper message to taxpayers and tax officers alike, all come into play in determining its usability domestically and quotability in the international sphere. Given the prevalence of some cross-country variation in definitions, there is little doubt that a domestic legislative drafting style with suitable definitions is preferred over blindly borrowing from international quarters. This is notwithstanding the awareness with which globally available styles have to be mastered by a drafter of any tax law. We consider some of these matters in this chapter.