Tax Man

[emmie]

anyone else think this is deeply disturbing,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/10818323/Taxman-has-power-to-raid-your-bank-accounts.html

[emmie]

who is, moi? not generally

[Peter Pedant]

Mikey where is your bleeding liberal heart ?

Clearly you are one of the few who has not been blundered by the tax man - I was assessed on my brothers turn over as income, once

two payments of £1947 please - and that was in 1985. And you are allowed to say - that was quite a lot of money then. Sure was.

My accountant commented ( that I hung onto altho she had said I could probably do it all myself ) I dont know why they've done that....

That was when I learnt that there is no tort of negligent tax assessment. They dont even say - oops sorry my mistake.

[emmie]

no they don't, and the idea they can dip your account is nothing short of criminal. i don't care if they chase 17 thousand, they have to go the legal route, no one would allow any person, company to take money out of their bank unless strictly given permission like direct debit,

[jim360]

Anyone remember the foul-up over Tax Credits? At least then, people were receiving money that they weren't entitled to, but HMRC tried to claw it back plus some excess. And there were a lot of mistakes. This has a good chance of leading to an even worse mess, what with them taking money that might not be theirs from the outset.

Absolutely not a good idea.

[Old_Geezer]

Close the bank account, keep it all under the mattress.

You can't trust anyone in authority nor from a commercial concern, to give more of a damn about you than they can get away with. Those who make the decisions are isolated, uninterested, and have aims that don't concern treating you right; whilst those you interface with are not directly responsible and have a job where they are only following orders to make a living and take the flak.

[ToraToraTora]

terrifying, the public sector are an incompetant shower at the best of times, giving faceless drones this kind of power is nothing short of criminal irresponsibility. What if there is nothing in your bank account? how will they know about your bank accounts anyway beyond the paye ones but they are not usually behind on tax anyway. I can see a growth of untouchable offshore facilities and paypal type operations, can they touch paypal? foriegn acounts? Mikey I'm surprised you are not against this. CSA cannot touch bank accounts they can get wages deduction though.

[factor-fiction]

I don't like the idea but I've just heard an explanation on Radio 4 and there are safeguards including limits as to how much they can take and it should only be a last resort for persistent defaulters.

[ToraToraTora]

whatever shambles the courts are I'd prefer due process to summary "justice", our whole way of life is based on "innocent until proven guilty" - this law gives faceless beauracrats power to determine the facts without let or hinderence, they can decide you owe money and take it without any chance to explain the situation or to appeal the interpretations of the Revenue. A lot a of tax law is a grey area anyway and it's frightening that a civil servant has power to raid bank accounts.

[emmie]

they make loads of mistakes, often not in your favour, so why should this be any different.