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What happened to 'small first', rants LITG chief

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16th Jan 2013
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Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (LITRG) founder John Andrews turned his acceptance speech for a professional award into a tirade against official short-sightedness and political ignorance.

At the recent CIOT president's lunch the former institute president was given a Council Award for his contributions to the profession, making him only the third person ever to receive the honour.

Andrews admitted that the occasion also marked his 50th anniversary of studying for CIOT exams after beginning his career as a junior tax officer at the Inland Revenue.

Checking that the doors were locked to ensure he had a captive audience, lamented that HMRC and Treasury staff were their "soul" after being bogged down with IT issues and pursuing avoidance and fraud.

"We are told that the 80:20 rule applies and that with reduced resources they can only cater for the majority. I don’t buy this, either strategically or practically," he said.

"It is the vulnerable and disadvantaged who almost always end up in the 20%, who get the poor service, whose problems are not considered in advance of implementation, either because these are seen as just too difficult or people operating in their silos don’t recognise the knock-on effects of their proposals until it is too late."

The real time information project for PAYE and universal credit also suffered from the same oversight.

"RTI would have considered the problems of micro-businesses first and ensured that their costs were minimised. Digital by default would ensure that all support was in place for the digitally excluded or disadvantaged before new online initiatives or mandation are launched. universal credit would plan for those with disabilities or chaotic lives as a priority, rather than last in line using so-called agile technology," he said. 

The recent Commons debate on tax avoidance confirmed his suspicion that politicians were happy to pontificate about the subject without having a grip on the facts.

At this point he invoked a conceit from Chicago Tribune columnist Rex Huppke to pronounce the demise of Facts, a mythical figure that goes back to  ancient Greece.

Though enjoying a fruitful life that took in the age of discovery and possibly even the introduction of self assessment. But when encountering the tax system, Facts went to an early grave in the UK because in 2012 people don't understand how the tax system works and reply on opinion and press speculation. 

Relevations that there was a £69.9bn tax gap caused by avoidance appeared to be the final straw.

"You will have seen from his obituary that Facts was aged 2,372 and was buried, at his request, in the birthplace of Parliament: the Isle of Man. He is survived by two brothers Rumour and Dogma and a sister Shout Loudly," quipped Andrews.

"Donations in his memory may be made to HMRC in a brown envelope marked 'Corporation tax'."

A copy of the full speech is available here.

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