Small business taxation: the indefinable pursuit of the unachievable?

<p><p><p>This paper was given as the ICAEW Hardman Memorial Lecture 2006. </p><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p></p><p>Colleagues are always surprised at the enthusiasm that tax professionals manage to have for their subject. To the uninitiated, tax is the driest, most technical subject they can think of. Amongst academic lawyers and many students there is still astonishment that anyone could find the subject bearable, let alone interesting. Teachers of tax law battle with this prejudice all the time- a hurdle to be overcome before one can get on to the substance. </p><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p></p><p>Philip Hardman was one of the people I was fortunate enough to meet very early on in my career who convinced me that tax could be exciting. Sadly, I did not have the privilege of knowing him at all well, but I was involved in one transaction, when I was in practice, on which we worked with him. I have no idea what the transaction was, but I do have a memory of him practically bouncing around his office with excitement when someone (definitely not me, I was just the note taker) made a clever point. Since then I have been very lucky to have had the opportunity to work with many others who have made tax intellectually exciting, but I can't remember anyone else bouncing in quite the same way. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p></p></p>