Taking Stock: Taxcuses, excuses
Another New Year, more bizarre excuses for not paying tax
TS HAS BECOME very fond of hearing HMRC’s favourite excuses for tardy self-assessment filings, and it’s safe to say this latest crop of feeble defences includes some truly excellent comedy.
In particular, TS is keen to learn more behind the story that saw one taxpayer “fall in with the wrong crowd”.
Quite what kind of circles promotes the non-payment of tax as a central tenet of their peer group, TS is unsure, but we’re fairly certain it’s not mods, jocks, rockers or goths.
Among other baffling picks were protests that one ‘taxpayer’ was ” up a mountain in Wales, and couldn’t find a postbox or get an internet signal”, while another had been “busy looking after a flock of escaped parrots and some fox cubs”.
These compare favourably to last year’s when someone had “a run-in with a cow” and “my pet goldfish died”.