It’s not easy

The official line of HMRC is that Self Assessment is easy. This is not true.

Not only is tax extremely complicated, but laws change every year. The truth is that tax is taxing, even if your return is small there are still vast areas of grey to get swallowed up in.

In January 2008 the face of HMRC Adam Hart-Davis admitted that the tax system was much too complicated, especially for the self-employed. In response HMRC said, “We will not be using Mr Hart-Davis in any self-assessment advertising campaigns in the future.” Read the story and listen to the interview here.

They don’t read their own returns

HMRC don’t read you return: it’s their policy. This is the official line: “Since the introduction of Self Assessment in 1997 there has been a policy to process now and check later This has been clear policy from the inception of SA.”

On the Self Assessment form there is an ‘additional information box’ which nobody reads. You have got to ask, why provide an ‘additional information’ box if it’s not read?