“Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs is no longer fit for purpose,” says Prem Sikka of The Guardian. Its job is to collect taxes, yet the agency is so starved of resources (its budget in 2015-16 was £3.2bn, down from £4.4bn in 2005) that it can’t carry out its job. Local tax offices have been replaced with overburdened call centres that fail to answer a quarter of calls. HMRC only has enough staff to investigate about 35 wealthy individuals a year for tax evasion. It has just 81 specialists to investigate transfer pricing practices – “a major tool for tax avoidance by multinational corporations”. It has even invited big business to join its board and design new tax policies that favour their own interests.

This can’t go on. We need to create an independent watchdog to monitor HMRC’s performance and to scrutinise any future sweetheart deals it cuts with the likes of Google. And we need to fund it properly: given that the agency “raises £75 for every £1 spent on investigating large businesses”, the case for increasing its budget is unassailable. Enact these reforms and HMRC may finally be able to do its job. (Prem Sikka. The Guardian, reproduced in The Week, 17 September 2016)

For the minor, individual taxpayer the system is disfunctional. Last year I subnitted my tax return in June. they owed me money; no reponse. In November they complained that I hadn’t filled in a section of the return (which they hadn’t sent me in the first place) and threatened a fine if it wasn’t returned within two weeks. I had to find the form online and send it by courier from the United States. You try to do the right thing early, no funny business, no avoidance, and you get this unreasonable behaviour, for tax that is peanuts in comparison to that of companies. I dread dealing with these people; they damage your peace of mind. To be fair, it is not wholly their fault; it is the fault of a right-wing government and the corporations who want a feeble tax collecting agency. No surprise that some taxpayers cut corners.