I'm sure you're all aware of Facebook, but I imagine that every last one of you is much too busy to ever make use of it.

Well, let me tell you: the popular social networking site is great for contacting people with whom you've lost touch.

You catch up online until the novelty wears off (after about a week), and then your ignore each other all over again, only occassionally swapping invitations to share in a round of You're a Hottie or Have You Ever???

Or you can use Facebook to play video games, compile music playlists, and accomplish no end of other extremely fulfilling and worthwhile tasks.

Alternatively, you can form or join a group to show your support or objection to something.

There are tens of thousands of groups on Facebook, and a quick search shows that hundreds relate to taxes.

Alarmingly, the vast majority of them seem to be popular with reactionary individuals for whom kneejerk responses are congenital and good English a mystery.

Take, for instance, I enjoy paying my taxes so that doleys and immigrants can live the dream!!!, NO TAX FOR BRITISH FORCE'S ON OP'S AND ABROAD, or
INCOME TAX IS LIKE CHRISTMAS ALL OVA AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

They're almost all anti-taxes - so I've started one called Taxes sometimes pay for good things, like healthcare and schools. (Yeah, it's mealy mouthed, but I needed to be clear as possible.) You're welcome to join.

Enter 'HMRC' into the search window and you'll be offered a mere 37 groups (at the time of writing).

Most of them, unsurprisingly, are populated by (aggrieved) (ex-)members of Revenue staff, or taxpayers who have some grudge against the taxman.
Take, for instance, Let's all leave HMRC and get better jobs! or HMRC use carrier pigeons to transport sensitive information.

My favourite, however, is the ingenuous and unwittingly ironic I have been affected by one of the the HMRC's cock-ups.

Try reading its name again.

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