On a personal level it’s hard to complain about the recent
notification from HM Revenue & Customs.
Headed “We are writing to apologize for the late issue of your
self-assessment statement”, it told me that I now have until the end of
September to pay any tax due and that I won’t be charged interest as long as I
meet that deadline.
Quite generous, I have to say where the essence of “self-assessment”
is that I know - or to be more precise my
accountant knows - how much tax is payable and that, as in every year, it
is due by 31 July. Furthermore, we all
know we get charged interest if the payment is late.
But no - the Revenue say that we don’t (or rather didn’t) have to pay
by the end of July - that we can have until the end of September - interest
free.
Why this generosity? Well, HMRC
are feeling guilty, explaining that “because we had to send out more statements than we expected this
year, we were unable to issue your statement at the usual time”.
I hope someone, somewhere - who has the ability to put things straight
- understands that this is a euphemism for “because we are so under-resourced
and/or incompetent the nation will have to continue paying interest on a sum
equivalent to however much tax is paid two months late, and not recover any of
it from taxpayers who have had the
benefit of the money for an extra two months”.
How can we ever expect to climb out of our pit of debt?
