CITY AND SUBURBAN
Self's tax assessment makes him dig his heels in he doesn't get value for money
CHRISTOPHER FILDES
The Inland Revenue have no one but themselves to blame. They let loose that great tax reformer, Self, and now there is no stopping him. Chancellors and their shadows are falling over' one another to appease him, and tax-gathering will never be the same again. It all started harmlessly enough. The Revenue has offices up and down the country, and at this time of year they like to shower us all with assessments, until their brown envelopes cover our door- mats like beech leaves in autumn. Then some taxman had a bright idea: leave it to Self. it him do the assessing. Self assess- ment is now the way of the tax-paying future, and of course if Self gets his sums wrong on the low side, he can be fined, thus creating a whole new source of revenue. Crafty? Not so clever as it looked. To the business of assessment, Self brings an atti- tude which can only be called selfish. He is not content to shut his eyes and sign the tax return and the cheque that goes with it. He wants to know what it is buying him. On that score, Self is making some assessments of his own. He can see that the money (it was his money) the Government spends has risen by one half in this decade, and that government borrowing has risen even faster. Since borrowing is tax deferred, there goes another post-dated cheque on his account. Self will need a lot of persuad- ing that he is proportionately better served or better off. He wants to see the realm defended and its capital stock renewed, but that is not where the money has gone. Cap- ital spending (on roads, for example) is always the easiest line for a Chancellor to cut. The biggest item in the budget, and the fastest-growing, is social security — which Self may well regard as money taken out of his pocket and transferred to other peo- ple's. His assessment is hostile. He is dig- ging his heels in, and digging up the politi- cal landscape.
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