For my first Blog of 2025, I thought that I would look back at 2024, a year dominated by the Post Office scandal, various tax U-turns, a General Election and the usual accounting and tax headaches. My review is based on what I consider to be the best quotes on tax from a variety of sources including the press, tax experts and accountants.
January
“As a retired software engineer of nearly 50 years’ experience, it was pretty obvious to me that Fujitsu MUST have known about this. I dug out some of the technical reports and it was obvious that basic software methods were not used. It was built by amateurs.” A quote from Rob Willet following ITV’s drama about the wrongful prosecution of hundreds of Post Office staff at the start of the year.
“For most, I imagine, like a baby treating a nappy.” A quote from accountant David Phillips on how January’s tax return season was treating him, explaining that the process is a bit messy, sometimes frustrating and you can’t help but wish there was an easier way.
February
“When Harold Wilson said: ‘A week is a long time in politics’, I doubt even he thought that 60 years later we could say ‘A week is a long time in taxation’!” BBC’s Factchecker wades in after the government abruptly U-turned on their plans to class double-cab pickups as cars, only announced by HMRC the week before.
March
“Sadly, this Budget has allowed Boots pharmacy to make a small fortune on the sale of washable sticking plasters.” Accountant Cheryl Williams on Jeremy Hunt’s Spring Budget on 6 March, when the Chancellor announced a cut 2% cut in national insurance and abolished the furnished holiday let regime.
April
“The neurotic builds castles in the sky, HMRC lives in them and the psychiatrist draws the rent.” Journalist Nick Graves on HMRC’s decision to deny accountants access to their clients’ tax accounts.
May
“In a couple of years’ time I predict that HMRC standards will be worse, and the £51m will have magically re-appeared in HMRC executive salaries and bonuses.” John Springfield was not convinced that the £51m given to HMRC to sort out the phonelines will be used as intended.
“I can’t wait for the ITV drama series to come out, maybe then the Government will take action?” An anonymous contributor dismayed by the injustice of a dyslexic taxpayer forced to sell their home to settle a high-income child benefit charge, which subsequently turned out to be wrong.
June
“It should not be forgotten that behind every personal service company is a person, and, as we have seen in this case, the uncertainty and financial exposures generated by the difficulty in establishing a clear and stable legal position continue to produce a very real human cost.” Judge Thomas Scott commenting on the minefield of IR35 and on how it had unfairly impacted on Adrian Chiles, who was taken to the tribunal multiple times over several years by HMRC, for the same tax bill.
July
“I am looking forward to five years before I have to write about a new chancellor in my budget round robin. Reeves has time to sort out a real mess of a tax system which has been high on politics, low on pragmatism for too long. Boring and stable will go a long way to improving the economy.” BBC economics editor Faisal Islam the morning after Labour’s landslide victory in the general election.
August
“Businesses are prevented from operating effectively due to their inability to obtain timely registrations or responses. Taxpayers’ legitimate refunds are withheld or delayed. Guidance and correspondence from HMRC is misleading or incorrect. All these things are inhibitors of growth and investment.” The CIOT’s Richard Wild sums up HMRC’s dreadful customer service for accountants and businesses.
September
“Oh joy, HMRC are embarking on yet another venture before their current systems aren’t brought up standard.” Adam Jones is not expecting HMRC’s plan to switch to 100% e-invoicing plans, being successful.
October
“There were no surprises in the Chancellor’s speech… Virtually all of the rabbits were already out of the hat.” Paul Aplin gave his take on Rachel Reeves’s first Budget, where most of the announcements were splashed across the broadsheets in the days before the actual speech.
November
“Here is an idea. Simplify the tax rules so that this doesn’t matter!” Steve Lister can’t take any more of the double cab pickup three-point turn, after the government has reversed the previous U-turn and they’re back to being classed as cars. Confused? Not half.
December
“December is the perfect time for a survey, HMRC will receive the least number of replies and can then extrapolate and use some of the statistics to produce a report that says 90% of Accountants and taxpayers think MTD is awesome and the sooner it is introduced the better.” Jason Croke is not convinced a survey on MTD in December is the best idea.
Accountant’s view
I hope you’ve enjoyed my selection of tax quotes for the year and my thanks go to those lovely people at AccountingWEB for providing many of them.
