Jane Philips, Birmingham
We all go to work every day in order to earn an honest wage and when we get paid at the end of the month and check our Bank accounts, we accept that whatever we get must be correct. I mean the tax man knows what he is doing, right?
Erm, no - wrong actually. It appears that the Tax Office have actually taken the wrong amount of tax off around six million people. That's around 10% of the country!!
I think that is absolutely disgusting!
I'm pretty sure that if someone running a business got their Tax self-assessment wrong, the tax office would not except any excuses, but it seems that it's okay when the Tax Office do it?!?
Even worse, the Tax Office expect those who owe more than £2,000, due to their error, to pay back this money within a little over three months. Basically, those who owe the most will have to pay it back in the least amount of time
Do these people live on a different planet?
I could understand it if these people had deliberately avoided paying tax or had been responsible for giving the Tax Office the wrong information, but the truth is the fault lies entirely with the Tax office. They made a mistake, but everyone else has to pay the price!
Do the Tax Office not realise that the average person is having a hard enough time just keeping their head above water with the economy the way is, without having to pay for their mistake?
Apparently not, David Hartnett, the head of the Tax Office doesn't seem to think it's a problem. Infact, Mr Hartnett doesn't even think it is necessary for him to apologise.
So those of us who go to work every day and have been paying the Tax your offices told us we owed Mr Hartnett will just have to wait until you get your department in order.
In the mean time I suppose you think it is okay for us to live in fear that at some point you will come knocking on our door telling us we are one of the 1.4 million who need to pay more and asking for more money that most of us simply haven't got?
Mr Hartnett has already said that these demand letters will start being posted out in October and he expects his department to have finished posting these just before Christmas. Fantastic!
While some of us are getting Christmas cards filled with warm wishes and good spirit, 1.4 million of us will be getting letters from the Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs demanding money and filling us with despair that will ruin our Christmas.
So Mr Hartnett, like you I'm not sure you need to apologise either because I think the mistake you and your team have made is way beyond an apology. Although, an apology would be a start
What you and your department actually need to do Mr Hartnett is tell us what you are going to do to make sure this never happens again and then tell us how you will help those who you have under-charged pay back the money they owe in a way that they can financially cope with
However, Mr Hartnett if you wont apologise and you wont answer the above questions then at least grace us with the answer to one question....
How do you sleep at night?
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