The Overmighty State

I have just received a letter from the taxman. It states that I should return my paper tax form by 31st October or face a £100 fine that will rise rapidly to £1,300. This is usual these days, not just that fines are routinely imposed, but that the threats that go with them are extreme. The anomaly here being that I haven't been sent a paper tax form to fill in. Which didn't surprise me, following a letter a while back saying they wouldn't be sending me them, routinely.

This one went with the one a couple of days ago threatening to remove items to sell, for non payment of tax, because they hadn't heard from me. Except of course, their haste to impose fines is so great that they miss when you do reply. I dispute the amount and have asked for time to pay. Apparently though, the HMRC don't have a hardship policy.

Richard North on his EU Referendum blog is pursuing illegal fees charged by councils and bailiffs, backed up by the usual threatening letters. Watchdog on BBC1 ran an article about fines from the DVLA because they had lost your SORN form and you hadn't checked they had got it.

The connection? Revenue raising from ordinary law-abiding citizens. That it is happening so broadly suggests that it is no coincidence, but a planned strategy on the part of all levels of government. You cannot move these days for the forms that must be completed by deadlines (HMRC etc, don't have such a level of service to you, naturally) with fines rapidly following.

It is clear that bonuses are involved in this corrupt and immoral system. The day will come when someone, or perhaps a lot of people will crack. Is that why strict sentences were handed down to looters? Because with such a weak police force, the authorities, know they are only a short distance from political rioting (and not by the usual marxist rabble)?

Policing Back To Normal

A small, white, unmarked van has just driven down my street and put an 'untaxed vehicle' sticker on the windscreen of a car. Technically of course, it is an offence and as I pay mine so should others, but it just feels a bit like persecution. Were these police officers (they were just wearing unmarked yellow waistcoats as far as I could see), or some other branch of officialdom out merely to maximise the revenue take?

A bit like my 'late submission' of a tax form that I am currently struggling with. A fine has been applied needless to say and whilst I was a bit close I did send it in just in time. They say I was seven days late (not seven working days, seven real days). This I assume is either the Royal Mail not meeting the time-scales expected of first class post, or much more likely, the sloth at the tax office. Here, it has been admitted, they have been keen to throw post away rather than deal with it. But the state feels entitled to lift £100 in these circumstances; in fact extremely keen to do so.

Naturally I intend to take this to a tribunal, as the state is far too used to bullying those it thinks weak (the law abiding) and ignoring the law breakers or their own failings. I shall also ask if they can point out which law specifically allows the imposition of a fine, thus specifically replacing the 1689 Bill of Rights, a constitutional Act of Parliament.

Meanwhile my son, attempting to register for Jobseekers Allowance has waited two weeks without any contact and when chasing it up gets passed from pillar to post by people who haven't the faintest idea how to do their job, much less care. He now has an appointment to see someone at the end of the third week, so we wait to see if they attempt to keep the honest off the benefits system whilst supporting the feckless. Too many state employees are unemployed salary-takers.