I am not a customer, and other stories

There are one or two controversial areas in UK tax just now - well maybe more than one or two - but the hornets nest at the moment seems to be what HMRC are to call us. Apparently they want us to be "customers", which to me at least suggests we should have some choice over whether or not we give them our custom.

The recent torrent of announcements from the Treasury might indeed be a prelude to the "line in the sand" as ICAS is calling it. What we need according to Elspeth Orcharton, director of international and corporate tax at ICAS, is a clear demarcation between what is acceptable and what is unacceptable tax planning.

So what is Treasury Minister David Gauke going to bring forth - like a rabbit out of a hat? More consultation, we fear. More disclosure by accountants of what they (and their clients) are up to. But if past experience is anything to go by, consultation leads to more rather than less complexity. The more rules, the more loopholes.

Meanwhile a tax practitioner called Mike Truman is exhorting us all to say "I am not a customer" to HMRC. We'll I suppose it is too much to ask for us to actually say "I want to be a taxpayer!"