Loan charge destroying public trust in the tax system - Yorkshire Post Letters

WITH regard to letters on the loan charge (The Yorkshire Post, August 25), the Government acknowledges that it has to ‘build and maintain public trust in the tax system’.

In the case of the loan charge, the Government has said that the Morse Report removed any doubts about its validity. No, it did not. The report had great sympathy for the impossible position individuals faced.

The taxpayers were victims. But the Government was adamant that the principle of taxpayers being responsible for their tax, was paramount, so Sir Amyas Morse could not lay the blame elsewhere.

On the subject of principles; there is one which says that laws – particularly tax laws – cannot be retrospective. On the one hand, the Government insists on the principle that taxpayers have full responsibility for their tax.

On the other hand, it persists in saying the loan charge is not retrospective, when clearly it is.

Two-faced? The Government acknowledges that it has to build public trust. So why does it persist in justifying the loan charge? This is probably top of the list of things destroying public trust in the tax system.

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