The latest suggested expansion of state power is the desire of the Inland Revenue and Customs to be able to take money directly from your bank account if they decide you havn’t paid enough tax.
This was discussed on the Today Program, without any discussion of the effects on the rule of law or civil liberties of course. They interviewed some accountants who were not opposed, they just said that safeguards are needed. Well, that’s what the courts are for you morons. They are the safeguards. Before they can take money the tax collector must get a court order. This is there as a safeguard against abuse. Its also a form of the idea that a person should be presumed innocent until found guilty. This change would reverse that, you would have to prove your innocence, you’d have to spend your money defending yourself against the money grab and sometimes that’s all it will be, grabbing money. Mistakes will happen, no matter what ’safeguards’ you put in place. Rather than simply asking you to correct what will often be an honest mistake, they will default to just taking it.
Of course, accountants would support this, it will mean more work for them as those rich enough seek to avoid taxation in other ways.
Perhaps its shockingly liberal, but perhaps we should think about not taking so much money in the first place. Perhaps we should simplify our tax system so its simply not worth it to try and hide money or to avoid taxation. Countries which have done this, and have a lower tax rate, have discovered that tax revenues increase as well as their economy being boosted.
