Monday, October 23, 2006

Render unto Caesar

I've just spent my morning (on my day off!) wading through Clare's tax affairs. Why do they have to make it so complicated?! I mean, take the example of National Insurance. (Read the next paragraph slowly...see if you understand it!)

Clare's self-employment income will be less than the National Insurance (class 2) threshold this year, and so she can apply for an 'exception' (note...it's not called an 'exemption', it's an 'exception'... don't ask me what the difference is!). However the notes to the application for 'exception' indicate that if she doesn't pay her Class 2 for this year, that could affect her ability to claim other state benefits, including her eventual basic state pension. BUT, she is also entitled to Home Responsibilities Credit for the years she has spent bringing up our daughter. So she has applied for the exception.

Did you get that? Does it really have to be that complicated!? I have to wonder!

Having worked, as I did for a while, in the corridors of power (see my website for more information... there's a link to your right) I have some insight into how the bureaucratic mind works.
One of the things I did when working for the Government was to publish an action-plan for simplifying funding arrangements for voluntary sector and other front-line providers. It was a document that received the explicit support and signatures of 3 Government ministers, and 18 departments, quangos and agencies. It should have dramatically cut down on bureaucracy. We publicised it throughout Whitehall, and via the Government Offices in all nine regions, via a roadshow, website, and letter from the sonsoring minister.

3 Years later...you can't even find the document on a Government website...and very few, if any, of the recommendations have been put in place.

Makes you want to scream doesn't it? Still, they paid me well...so I can at least pay Clare's tax bill this year!

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