Matthew Sinclair

How to untie the tax knot

Yet another HMRC scandal this week, as a new HMRC computer discovered millions who have paid too much or too little in tax. A letter from the tax man will land on their doorstep in the next few months. Some will enjoy the dubious pleasure of getting money back that should never have been taken in the first place. Others face the painful task of finding the money to catch-up on tax they didn’t pay before.
 
As Pete said in his post on Wednesday, this isn’t the first time. When the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee looked at similar problems last year, they said that the Department had ‘failed’ in its duty to process people’s taxes ‘accurately and on time’. The bureaucrats need to be held accountable for these repeated failures, but are they really the ones responsible for a tax system that isn’t fit for purpose?
 
The world’s fastest speaker, Steve Woodmore, can read aloud more rapidly than most of us can think.



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