Our Government may think they are big on Human Rights but like anything in life there is one rule for one and one rule for another.

When dealing with government departments such as the Inland Revenue your rights go out of the window. Supposedly there our safeguards put in place to stop the Inland Revenue from over exerting their powers and indeed if they request information from you that they are not entitled to under their Code of Practice they have to go to an independent Commissioner for approval of their request.

This is where the whole situation becomes laughable. You are not allowed to represent yourself to the Commissioner but can send in a letter that has to go to the Inland Revenue for them to pass on. Basically any defence you have is landed in the hands of the very people that are out to get you. This wouldn’t be so bad apart from the fact it is one sided. In fact the Inland Revenue are not obliged to let you know what they are going to say and what they actually said. Where is the fairness?

Conceivably it is possible for the Inland Revenue to make accusations against you that are completed unfounded and untrue and generally just make things up as they go alone. You’ll never know so what’s to stop them?

If someone accuses you of something and decides to take you to court if you are found not guilty then it is up to the prosecutors to pay your defence costs. Not so with the Inland Revenue. Their charter allows them to waste as much or your time and money as they wish. In their eyes, you are guilty until you can prove yourself innocent and its up to you to pay any of your own costs. Essentially you are already contributing to their costs out of the tax that you pay anyway. This allows them to be incompetent, inefficient and answerable to nobody.

How is that fair?

Posted in Rants & Raves