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F*ck you its ours now !!!! Ha Ha Ha
Willard Foxton
Willard Foxton is an investigative journalist & television producer. He writes on skulduggery wherever he finds it, especially in the world of technology.
Did you spot this? Budget gives HMRC power to raid your bank account – like Wonga
By Willard Foxton Politics and tech Last updated: March 20th, 2014
163 Comments Comment on this article
… but HMRC isn't quite so straight-talking about its new pwoers
Did you spot this in the Budget? George Osborne has – it seems – adopted one of payday lender Wonga’s most controversial policies.
One of the things that makes Wonga such a good payday lender is their policy of draining out their clients' bank accounts in the middle of the night on the day of payment. It’s certainly effective if you’re a loan shark – it saves you the expense of sending the heavies round to collect payment (not referring to Wonga here of course!).
At the back of the Budget book, there’s this chilling paragraph: “The Government will modernise and strengthen HMRC’s debt collection powers to recover financial assets from the bank accounts of debtors who owe over £1,000 of tax.”
Make no mistake, this is a huge change – a "power grab" according to Politics.co.uk. At the moment, if HMRC want to seize your property or cash, they have to take you to court, win and then get a court order. Now, they apparently can do it at the flick of a switch. Crucially, there’s no safeguard built into this system – there’s no evidence of appeal process.
To repeat, if HMRC decide you owe them cash, they just take it, and there’s no mechanism to get it back or challenge their decision. You just wake up one morning, check your bank account, and find the money's gone.
All we’re told as a safeguard is that “A minimum of £5,000 will be left across debtors’ accounts.” That’s a very low threshold – especially for a business or a pensioner. This measure, which appeared with zero warning, could easily cause businesses to fail overnight.
As ever, this isn’t going to be targeted at the sort of tax avoiders UK Uncut get angry about – it’s not like Vodaphone or Starbucks are going to wake up with only five grand left in their accounts. Even if HMRC wanted to use this power on a multinational, any sensible company will take its accounts offshore now.
No, as usual, this will be an HMRC tool for going after low-hanging fruit – small businesses and professionals. You don’t just owe the taxman money in taxes – there are all kinds of surcharges that they levy on business – for example, have a read of this speech by Priti Patel MP in which she said “this kind of persecution is outrageous”.
Fighting HMRC in the courts is already one of the main causes of small business and personal bankruptcies – and this change won't affect that. Anyone who ever has to submit a contentious claim – especially a VAT bill – should be quaking in their boots.
The reason Wonga can get away with this is because they explicitly tell you they’ll drain your bank accounts if you take out a loan with them. But no one has agreed to this tax policy, and in my opinion it’s a huge abuse of process for the Government to seize assets like this without a warrant. As a comparison, the police still need warrants to seize property or cash from criminals under the Proceeds of Crime Act – so people with debts to HMRC are literally going to have less rights than criminals.
Simply pu
t, if you don’t absolutely trust the bureaucrats in HMRC to operate without judicial oversight, you can’t bank in Britain any more.
Willard Foxton
Willard Foxton is an investigative journalist & television producer. He writes on skulduggery wherever he finds it, especially in the world of technology.
Did you spot this? Budget gives HMRC power to raid your bank account – like Wonga
By Willard Foxton Politics and tech Last updated: March 20th, 2014
163 Comments Comment on this article
… but HMRC isn't quite so straight-talking about its new pwoersDid you spot this in the Budget? George Osborne has – it seems – adopted one of payday lender Wonga’s most controversial policies.
One of the things that makes Wonga such a good payday lender is their policy of draining out their clients' bank accounts in the middle of the night on the day of payment. It’s certainly effective if you’re a loan shark – it saves you the expense of sending the heavies round to collect payment (not referring to Wonga here of course!).
At the back of the Budget book, there’s this chilling paragraph: “The Government will modernise and strengthen HMRC’s debt collection powers to recover financial assets from the bank accounts of debtors who owe over £1,000 of tax.”
Make no mistake, this is a huge change – a "power grab" according to Politics.co.uk. At the moment, if HMRC want to seize your property or cash, they have to take you to court, win and then get a court order. Now, they apparently can do it at the flick of a switch. Crucially, there’s no safeguard built into this system – there’s no evidence of appeal process.
To repeat, if HMRC decide you owe them cash, they just take it, and there’s no mechanism to get it back or challenge their decision. You just wake up one morning, check your bank account, and find the money's gone.
All we’re told as a safeguard is that “A minimum of £5,000 will be left across debtors’ accounts.” That’s a very low threshold – especially for a business or a pensioner. This measure, which appeared with zero warning, could easily cause businesses to fail overnight.
As ever, this isn’t going to be targeted at the sort of tax avoiders UK Uncut get angry about – it’s not like Vodaphone or Starbucks are going to wake up with only five grand left in their accounts. Even if HMRC wanted to use this power on a multinational, any sensible company will take its accounts offshore now.
No, as usual, this will be an HMRC tool for going after low-hanging fruit – small businesses and professionals. You don’t just owe the taxman money in taxes – there are all kinds of surcharges that they levy on business – for example, have a read of this speech by Priti Patel MP in which she said “this kind of persecution is outrageous”.
Fighting HMRC in the courts is already one of the main causes of small business and personal bankruptcies – and this change won't affect that. Anyone who ever has to submit a contentious claim – especially a VAT bill – should be quaking in their boots.
The reason Wonga can get away with this is because they explicitly tell you they’ll drain your bank accounts if you take out a loan with them. But no one has agreed to this tax policy, and in my opinion it’s a huge abuse of process for the Government to seize assets like this without a warrant. As a comparison, the police still need warrants to seize property or cash from criminals under the Proceeds of Crime Act – so people with debts to HMRC are literally going to have less rights than criminals.
Simply pu
t, if you don’t absolutely trust the bureaucrats in HMRC to operate without judicial oversight, you can’t bank in Britain any more.
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