Quirks in tax law

WHEN Bumble in Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist remarked the law is an ass, little did he realise that those of us who to this day are confronted by unusual and unexpected nuances in the law, will meekly submit to it with no more than an expression of those same sentiments. This is true of all laws including tax law.

The framers of our tax law are not to be particularly faulted since in many instances tax provisions have evolved over time under policy driven changes, and quirkiness and novel situations have crept in, often unnoticed.