HMRC Poor Wording

Pennywise

A big issue is that there are different definitions of trade/business between different taxes, i.e. an activity may qualify or be liable as a "business" for one tax, but not another, i.e. the different definitions between inheritance tax and capital gains tax for tax reliefs etc.

Or the other woolly wording when the law defines something and then defines something else as something "that isn't xxxx".  I.e. say they define what isn't a private car and then say that anything that's not in the list of what isn't a private car IS a private car, leading to some anomalies where a vehicle that is clearly not a private car ends up being defined as such because it's not specifically listed in the "non car" definition.  Again, similar problem with what is defined as a business as you get instances where say, a non-business asset is defined as an asset that's not a business asset - so a kind of negative definition of what it isn't rather than a definition of what it is, etc.  

These things always crop up on tax courses I attend - and it's just down to very poor law drafting. I.e. a particular law may say  "a business asset is eligible for xyz relief" but a "business asset" isn't defined in that piece of legislation, so tribunals/courts have to look at other statutes to find a definition of "business asset".