Penalties: the cognitive revolution and common myths

Key points

• The Sapiens concept of ‘cognitive revolution’ and how ‘common myths’ act as a social glue for larger groupings of people.
• HMRC’s Evaluation justifies powers given to the state as being for the good of the many.
• The claim is the increased powers focus on the few engaging in in egregious tax avoidance.
• There is unease about the breadth and use of HMRC powers for example in imposing and pursuing penalties for non-compliance.
• There is a mismatch in the increasing likelihood of large penalties being imposed on taxpayers and the decreasing ability to appeal such penalties due to litigation costs.

Like many people I have found one of the few advantages of the last year to be more opportunity to read. Two very different books have been: Sapiens – a brief history of humankind by Yuval Noah Harari (hereafter Sapiens); and Evaluation of HMRC’s implementation of...