What is the job of a tax collection agency ?
Is it to collect all the money owed in a fair and equitable manner or is it to take a view on where it should concentrate its resources and go for the low-hanging fruit?
Does anybody actually know the answer ?
One thing is clear - it does not serve the public well , as anybody who tries to phone the helplines knows, and the technical knowledge of many of its staff is poor , often applying rules in an arbitrary and incorrect manner . This is the fault of the complexity of our tax regulations , so what's the solution ?
The HSBC debacle seems like an ideal time to start the conversation - and HMRC themselves need to grasp the nettle and force the issue
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I refer you to...
Jean Baptiste Colbert,
Who said "The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the least possible amount of hissing."
Despite the failures of HMRC I cannot yet detect a significant increase in hissing :(
Plucking geese ?
The fat geese ain't beingn plucked - it's the KFC drumsticks that are getting a roasting