As the UK wakes up to the reality of a double-dip recession, few would argue against the need for a fair tax system, a system where those who are able to contribute to the public finances pay the taxes they are obliged to.

But many now question whether the boundaries between careful tax planning, tax avoidance and outright tax abuse have been deliberately blurred in a way that is adding further uncertainty and complexity to one of the largest and most unwieldy tax rule books in the world.

‘The term tax avoidance is being used by politicians much more imprecisely to reflect a large number of different actions by taxpayers,’ says Stephen Herring, senior tax partner at BDO.