Who allowed this to go as far as the High Court and how much did it cost the taxpayer?
JJ is quite right; common sense should have prevailed. But when UC was introduced, who imagined that people living "on the edge" could manage without funding for up to 5 or 6 weeks?
The film "I,Daniel Blake" illustrates the problems faced by the powerless when confronted with an implacable bureaucracy. It should be a compulsory component of the training for front line staff. After all, claimants are people and are entitled to be treated with respect (and I would add a little understanding AND common sense.
These situations are frightening and daunting to those who face them
The OTS should be concentrating on simplification. That is what they are supposed to do. There is little point in a massive exercise in rewriting guidance when the whole tax system needs a root and branch re-think. Too many aspects of the personal tax code, for example, are too complex for the man in the street to deal with without professional help. Many elderly (and not so elderly) people could not cope with their compliance obligations without pro bono help from professionals. In my view, that is a sign of a bad system.
Auto enrolment, GDPR, health and safety, new or expanded regulations ad infinitum all have a shared effect. They spawn an immediate industry of experts eager to cash in. The costs of doing business are increased and more and more time is devoted to administration instead of doing the job.
Stopped paying money into pensions when Gordon Brown started taking money out. Worked out well so far.
It should not be beyond the powers that be to reorganise the State Pension to produce a "liveable" income - maybe with a mix of personal top-ups. Admittedly not easy because, as said above, the existing State arrangement is essentially a ponzi scheme. At some stage, some politician is going to have to admit that the existing State scheme will not work any longer - I suspect that's why someone thought up the auto enrolment fiasco - first step towards eventually saying there will be no more State pensions? .
I have managed to set up an ASA, but am nervous of trying to register any trust. This whole exercise seems to be badly conceived, badly executed and takes absolutely no account of service to the "customer". I am reminded of Emile Woolf's expression " the staggering arrogance of the public sector".
Setting such tight deadlines for a massively time consuming exercise is crass in the extreme. All we are trying to do is meet compliance requirements for our clients, but there is the usual army of bureaucrats trying to slow down or destroy the system.
Do we know if quarterly returns will require stocktakes, WIP figures etc?
A prerequisite for MTD should be simplification - so we have just seen the longest Finance Bill ever. Joined-up thinking required at the top!
What happened to tax simplification? This whole area must account for huge amounts of HMRC, business and professional time spent on what in the end amount to trivial amounts of tax.
The whole tax system is crying out for drastic simplification yet successive Chancellors do nothing but introduce pointless cosmetic measures most of which have little effect in the long run.
My answers
That would be the (previous) government that relentlessly pushed everyone towards diesel?
Who allowed this to go as far as the High Court and how much did it cost the taxpayer?
JJ is quite right; common sense should have prevailed. But when UC was introduced, who imagined that people living "on the edge" could manage without funding for up to 5 or 6 weeks?
The film "I,Daniel Blake" illustrates the problems faced by the powerless when confronted with an implacable bureaucracy. It should be a compulsory component of the training for front line staff. After all, claimants are people and are entitled to be treated with respect (and I would add a little understanding AND common sense.
These situations are frightening and daunting to those who face them
The OTS should be concentrating on simplification. That is what they are supposed to do. There is little point in a massive exercise in rewriting guidance when the whole tax system needs a root and branch re-think. Too many aspects of the personal tax code, for example, are too complex for the man in the street to deal with without professional help. Many elderly (and not so elderly) people could not cope with their compliance obligations without pro bono help from professionals. In my view, that is a sign of a bad system.
Auto enrolment, GDPR, health and safety, new or expanded regulations ad infinitum all have a shared effect. They spawn an immediate industry of experts eager to cash in. The costs of doing business are increased and more and more time is devoted to administration instead of doing the job.
Stopped paying money into pensions when Gordon Brown started taking money out. Worked out well so far.
It should not be beyond the powers that be to reorganise the State Pension to produce a "liveable" income - maybe with a mix of personal top-ups. Admittedly not easy because, as said above, the existing State arrangement is essentially a ponzi scheme. At some stage, some politician is going to have to admit that the existing State scheme will not work any longer - I suspect that's why someone thought up the auto enrolment fiasco - first step towards eventually saying there will be no more State pensions? .
In view of the MTD project, there must be a possibility that the VAT threshold will be reduced eventually to bring most businesses into the VAT net.
I have managed to set up an ASA, but am nervous of trying to register any trust. This whole exercise seems to be badly conceived, badly executed and takes absolutely no account of service to the "customer". I am reminded of Emile Woolf's expression " the staggering arrogance of the public sector".
Setting such tight deadlines for a massively time consuming exercise is crass in the extreme. All we are trying to do is meet compliance requirements for our clients, but there is the usual army of bureaucrats trying to slow down or destroy the system.
Someone is to blame. Who is it?
Do we know if quarterly returns will require stocktakes, WIP figures etc?
A prerequisite for MTD should be simplification - so we have just seen the longest Finance Bill ever. Joined-up thinking required at the top!
What happened to tax simplification? This whole area must account for huge amounts of HMRC, business and professional time spent on what in the end amount to trivial amounts of tax.
The whole tax system is crying out for drastic simplification yet successive Chancellors do nothing but introduce pointless cosmetic measures most of which have little effect in the long run.