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New Zealand's fattest statute is almost complete, but anyone looking for a holiday read may want to avoid the 3000-page Income Tax Act.
It has taken 15 years to rewrite the country's tax laws to make them clearer and easier to understand, and the last part of the weighty statute is scheduled to be passed into law today.
For those who have been intimately involved with the rewrite, it will be a wistful day - Sir Ivor Richardson yesterday mused about the impact the new laws would have had on his former role in the judiciary.
"I wish I'd had it when I was a lawyer in the tax field, a long time ago, and then when I was a judge deciding tax cases over a long period," the former president of the Court of Appeal said.
"Life would have been much easier had we had this rewrite available."
Sir Ivor is chairman of the Rewrite Advisory Panel which has steered the tax law overhaul through its various stages.
He said reading the statute would be easier, although with a laugh he conceded that may not be everybody's cup of tea.
Taxpayers probably won't be wistful about the passing of the Income Tax Act, but it is designed to help those who act on their behalf when it comes to tax matters.
Revenue Minister Peter Dunne said the rewrite was a big step forward for people who dealt with the law directly, such as tax lawyers and the Inland Revenue Department.
Laws would now be clearer, carry less ambiguity, and be easier to find.
The Income Tax Act is the statute that defines and imposes tax on income, and sets out the consequences of what happens if those taxes are not paid.
Inland Revenue deputy commissioner Robin Oliver said the rewrite should make it easier for IRD advisers to give clearer advice about tax, because in the past there had been different views about some parts of the law.
However, it was not so clear that the new law would stop people avoiding tax.
"There will always be smart tax lawyers and there will always be tax law, and they'll always find opportunities to find unexpected ways to avoid what we intend to be the policy result," Mr Oliver said.
"But probably opportunities are somewhat limited."
