It seems the Inland Revenue are constantly in the press nowadays highlighting their errors and mistakes and how the tax payer is soaking up the burden for their own mistakes.

For 2 years in a row they have got their Tax Credits wrong overpaying countless numbers of people and have written off millions of pounds as they have been unable to collect the overpayments from everybody.

Who pays for this? We do. As tax payers we are now paying for their mistakes which leads me to the question, are they trying to raise extra taxes by other means?

This year I received a fine of £100 for supposedly not filing my tax return by the 31st January 2006 deadline. Now I know this wasn’t true as it was hand delivered to the tax office and when I queried this they confirmed they had received it on the 31st January 2006. “So why was I fined” I asked, “don’t know” was the reply and the fine was duly written off.

My girlfriend was also fined for not paying over stamp duty to the Inland Revenue in time when she purchased a house. She was fuming as this is all dealt with by the solicitors. She had to take the time to get proof that the cheque was sent in time and indeed cashed before they would write off the charge which they did.

Now how many people would bother to query these instances and simply pay up because they have been told to. Is this a ploy for them to generate more revenue or just another case of their incompetence?

Posted in Rants & Raves