As a member of the Commission on Taxation and Welfare (COTW), I spent a year digesting lengthy briefing documents prepared by a secretariat brimming with brains far larger than mine. I attended sometimes fortnightly half- or full-day sessions while we tried to break the back of the monstrous terms of reference for the COTW, which included everything from sugar tax to Reits and site levies to our corporation tax regime. Of course, I was invited by the minister to take a place on the commission because I could speak to both the challenges facing small-business ownership and tech start-ups with…