This week's opinion

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I saw an HMRC press release entitled ‘Men come out on top in the Battle of the Taxes’. It turned out to be statistics about tax return submissions showing among other things that more women than men sent theirs late. ‘That’s hardly a surprise ’ said my (female) colleague sitting next to me. ‘Women are too busy getting on with all of the jobs that the men don’t get round to.’ I went uncharacteristically quiet at that point.

What struck me most about the statistics was the very low overall number of late returns. For 2014-15 there were 230 for every 10 000. That means 97.7% of returns were submitted on time. We also see that compliance rates improve as people get older – the over-65s have a 99% success rate. What interests me is what these figures will look like...