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Public confidence in the tax system is important
The issue of non-payment of the high-income child benefit charge has blown up again with the news that up to 100 000 families are facing tax demands. Reports have not been reticent!
My local news website talked about parents being hit with large tax bills over the ‘child benefit loophole’; elsewhere the issue has been described as an ‘administrative bungle’ a ‘fiasco’ or a ‘farce’ with HMRC’s letters to taxpayers owing the charge described as ‘threatening’ or ‘bullying’.
Whether or not we agree with the reporting there is an important issue here about public confidence in the tax system. The underlying policy itself seems to have been devised without any thought about how it was to be administered but these stories do raise the important issue about how...
