Business banking news review: week ending 10 July 2014
MPs have finally pulled out the big guns in retaliation against the taxman’s plan to raid personal and business bank accounts to punish debtors.
If HMRC wants to delve into the private accounts of anyone who owes cash to the Government, it’s a clear violation of the Magna Carta according to MPs that were absolutely horrified at the possibility. The tax authority, for its part, says that there’s some 17,000 people who have been more than a bit ‘recalcitrant’ in paying their bills, and as a result it needs the broader powers to teach these particular people a lesson.
The Treasury Select Committee was absolutely incensed by the idea that HMRC wants the power to delve into your savings account or current account to recover what the tax authority calls ‘recoverable tax.’ HMRC executives say the new powers wouldn’t be exercised willy-nilly and would leave enough cash in these accounts to prevent these debtors running into problems living their lives, but who in the world makes some HMRC stuffed shirt know how much each individual person needs to survive?
This is possibly the worst idea the tax authority has ever had, simply because nobody believes they wouldn’t just abuse the power like mad if it was granted with them. HMRC is simply not to be trusted – especially in this current economic climate where the Treasury has been grasping for revenue in what can only be called absolutely unchecked avarice.
Now I’m not one to foment panic or anything like that, but you keep an eye on this issue the same I will. If it ends up that HMRC ends up granted these new powers I almost guarantee that the age of stuffing your mattress with pound notes instead of leaving them safe and sound at your local High Street branch is going to become a reality once again. No, I’m not going to go so far as to say that there’s going to be bank runs – but would I be surprised if they start happening? Not in the least. And whose fault will it be? The Government’s, completely. Will someone please tell George Osborne that this is the worst idea he’s ever had?