We deserve a more humane tax system
It seems that in the last resort, Conservative Party members selected a new prime minister for us on the basis of their promises about tax. To cut or not to cut?
We all know the financial woe caused by soaring inflation and the energy, while services decline or break up all together. (I declare an interest: I won’t be able to get to my next eye appointment in Paulton as there will be no buses going past the hospital.)
However, there are only about 1.3 million of us who are battling the Inland Revenue. If the government provided an efficient and humane service in any way different from the DVLA and the Passport Office, there might be less of a black hole in the Treasury.
I submitted my tax returns for
2020/21 in September 2021. On May 6 I got an extremely nasty letter dated March 8 accusing me of not submitting returns. I immediately paid by direct express transfer what I thought I owed – £596 – and sent off another set, registered post. For some reason the forms ended up in Wolverhampton, not Brighton. I was not too worried because a new tax code had arrived, dated February 2. It had only taken four months to reach me. The nasty letters kept coming, so I sent off a third set of forms, then an official complaint. That, apparently, could not be accepted unless I sent a fourth set. Finally they demanded £1,000 in penalties And all I needed to pay tax on was my state pension!
We are effectively paying fines, should we really not have submitted tax returns, for their inefficiency and delay.
Then, a miracle – or the fact Jacob Rees-mogg promised to investigate – my original returns were found after ten months.
I want to know how this is acceptable. It turned out they owed me £531.65. I think I should have compensation for all the stress and we all deserve a decent service.
After he got back from the Arctic convoys and other naval duties in 1946, my father returned to his desk at the Inland Revenue and worked there for 35 years. So I know how things should be run, even though I don’t expect today’s officers to sign letters “your humble and obedient servant” as he had to.
Eleanor M Jackson (Cllr) Radstock