This week’s opinion

The success of small business owner Paul Johnson in obtaining more than 100 000 signatures for his online petition calling on the government to abandon plans for quarterly reporting should not go unremarked. Most such petitions attract few signatures and it is rare for one to reach the hurdle which requires parliament to consider holding a debate. Gaining that number of signatures in a few weeks over the Christmas break shows two things. One is the power of social media: the second is just how important this issue is.

Had the government actually proposed quarterly submission of tax returns as the petition suggests I would have signed the petition myself. At the moment though I am prepared to accept HMRC’s assurance that a light touch form of reporting will be required and that these proposals will ultimately lessen the compliance burden. But and...