A letter that Dawn might consider writing....soon

I noticed Geoff Jones from Arctic Systems posting to UKTECH today.

Firstly let me take my hat off to Geoff for putting his head above the parapet and refusing to lie down and accept the Revenue demands.

The Revenue are the nation's debt collectors. And Dawn is their 'Guv'nor'. She is the Vinnie Jones character in "Lock, stock and two smoking barrels" and when she gets your head in the car door most people will roll over and pay up.

Not Geoff. Maybe there has been no change to the legislation, but the change that did occur, was that someone was prepared to stand up and blow the whistle.

Geoff approached the Webtastic team when we were running the PCG secretariat and we thought it was such an open goal for Qdos to score we persuaded them to take the case on pro bono. We argued that this must be a mistake and they could earn some PR brownie points. Little did we know this was the tip of the iceberg we now see.

We left PCG last September so I am unaware of the "behind the scenes" negotiations by the PCG team, but I am sure they exhausted every possibility to solve this problem before taking the step of issuing an open letter to Dawn.

Once a political problem gets escalated to an open letter leading to entrenched positions then it is the equivalent of an open declaration of hostilities. Unlike IR35 we have had a rep body on the inside for the last 6 months *before* a public position was established. It is a great shame Dawn failed to listen to them and nip this problem in the bud.

Because this is going to be a much bigger political problem than IR35.

• It is retrospective
  
• It affects far more people
  
• It affects a key sector of the economy - small business.
  
• Dawn's opposite number is Mark Prisk, who has hands on experience in this area
  
• It affects husbands and wives and requires over half the 3.7 million small businesses in the UK to stop what they are doing and ask "Do they mean me".

If I was Dawn I would be saying:

"I made a mistake, the day I signed the Tax bulletin off. I apologise for effectively making tax cheats out of those in the population that contribute the most to the fair society we all want.

We will cancel all Section 660 investigations. Remove the threat of bankruptcy from thousands of businesses and instead of discussing this with the rep body for Tax advisors the CIOT, who stand to gain the most from this complex *new* problem, we will discuss it with those most affected. The tax payer

We will work to the ICAEW "Ten tenets for a better tax system" and if necessary will rip Section 660 up and start again.

We will have this done within 3 months by using the internet to consult in an open, honest and transparent way. For this purpose I propose to use the All Party Parliamentary Small Business Group and have written to them today to ask for their help.

I hope that by taking this swift action we will help restore faith in Government; that we listen and act responsively, when problems like this occur"

While we wait for this we need more like Geoff Jones to come forward. Call me confidentially on 0207 462 7908. My office is manned 24/7 and if I am not around they will take a message and I will phone you back.

Links

ICAEW Ten tenets for a better tax system'

Geoff Jones post