The Annals of Taxation

I’m lecturing at the University of Essex and going from office to office chatting with people about their research. This is hard physical labor — I repeatedly go down one or two flights of stairs in this rabbit warren, walk down a hall, up the stairs in the adjoining building, then back down another hall. What a waste — why?
The answer is that the British government imposes a value-add tax on building extensions, so that if the buildings are joined on each floor, the extension is heavily taxed. To avoid this, the University struck a deal with the taxman to allow one internal door between adjoining buildings, allowing what is merely an extension to be treated as a new edifice and to escape taxation. The only problem is that, as usual, taxes create a dead-weight loss, as my well-exercised, tired knees that feel like dead-weights now illustrate. I doubt the building’s planners considered the cost of this loss when they agreed to this tax-avoiding subterfuge. (HT: SP)