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Filing blues

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14 July 2005 / Allison Plager
Issue: 4016 / Categories: Comment & Analysis , Income Tax
The National Audit Office's report on filing of self assessment tax returns is put under the microscope by ALLISON PLAGER.

ENOUGH SOUL SEARCHING! How many more reports can there be on filing personal self assessment tax returns? Will there ever be a perfect form? More importantly will there ever be a perfect taxpayer? Are the two mutually exclusive? Does any of this make sense? No but we are talking tax official forms and human nature which make an impossible and sometimes explosive combination. I find it staggering that anyone is at all surprised that taxpayers are reluctant to complete tax returns. I can recall my own father grumbling about it and now I know why. Tax is not a sexy subject; people pay it because they have to. Furthermore they hate disclosing precise information about their income and so filling in the dratted tax return is regarded as a chore to which even doing the ironing or painting the fence in the rain...

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