I’ve been trying to interview HMRC boss Dave Hartnett for well over a year now, “he’s very busy,” his press officer tells me. So no joy there!
The question I’d really like to ask him is this: why do you waste resources on hammering sole traders and small businesses – often going to the expense of bankrupting them when they can never pay up? And why – as part of the same question – are you so soft on big businesses? Why do you allow some banks and companies like Vodafone to get away with hardly paying any tax at all?
Well it seems as though I’m not the only one who wants answers to questions like these, last month Dave was called before a House of Commons Treasury Sub Committee and the line of questioning took this form. Dave refused to answer some of the more sensitive questions, saying that he’d been given legal advice not to talk about it (ho-ho) but it’s still a very revealing 17 minutes of questioning.
You can see the film by clicking on the above image (it will open the Select Comitee video page).
Video shows Dave Hartnett CB, Permanent Secretary, Tax, Mike Eland CB, Director General, Enforcement and Compliance, and Melanie Dawes, Director General, Business Tax, HMRC at House of Commons Treasury Sub Committee Monday 12 September 2011. A full transcript can be seen here.
Good questions to ask – no doubt about it. Small businesses are often picked on as you say and it is big businesses who should be targeted more often. Thanks of the article Dave – great reading