UK tax authorities plan massive mailshot
HM Revenue and Customs will this week begin the onerous task of contacting the 6 million people in the UK to confirm that they have either paid too much tax or too little tax in the past. While 4.3 million people in the UK are set to receive an average rebate of £418 it is those who have under paid their tax, through no fault of their own, who will feel most pain.
The first batch of 45,000 letters will fall on the doormats of many people on Tuesday with the remaining millions of letters expected to be delivered before Christmas. While there will obviously be short-term pain for many people caught up in this very distressing situation it could actually work out well for UK taxpayers in the future if it prompts a major review of the system and a simplification of taxation in the UK.
The head of HM Revenue and Customs national news department, Paul Franklin, this weekend acknowledged the need for a new system to ensure that similar problems do not occur in the future. However, this major error with regards to UK taxation comes not long after the previous UK government spent billions of pounds on a new system. It is now time for the government to question the efficiency and the return on money invested with regards to taxation computer systems in the UK?
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