Nobody seems to trust anyone in our country anymore. At least that is what is implied in the heavy-handed regulation of our country. Increasingly we are called upon to prove who we are and where we live.
Recently I was asked to become a trustee for a youth organisation in our town which had just acquired its own premises. I had to provide not only photo identification (my passport) but something to prove that I lived where I do (a utility bill), so that the organisation could register me as a trustee.
I have just been told by my employers that Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs now demand that every single journey I make in my vehicle for business purposes has to be logged separately. So, instead of totalling my short mileage trips by recording the start mileage at the beginning of the day and the finish mileage at the end of the day and submitting a daily total. I must record the start and finish mileage every trip – no matter how short and submit them all. If I go to one place and then on to another in the same trip, I must mention both places. Why? Because HMRC doesn't trust me. The irony is that they take my word that a particular trip was for a business purpose but not that the five short journeys I may make in a day are.
The unfair thing is that they haven't moved the mileage limit which is allowed for tax purposes for the last eight years. They reckon that it doesn't cost anymore to run a car now than it did eight years ago! So, I am allowed 25p per mile tax free (up to 10000 miles per year) but if my employer wants to pay me 30p per mile, because of increases in road tax, insurance and fuel, then HMRC tax me on the difference of 5p per mile. And they have the effrontery to ask me to log every journey separately!
Where can I resign my citizenship, Mr Darling?
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