I must admit that until now, I assumed that tax affected all of us (apart from MPs) more or less in the same way irrespective of race, creed, orientation and gender.
Seemingly this assumption was wrong, as HMRC have just published a 20 page booklet aimed at "our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender customers".
Quote:
"We want to be fully inclusive and we have a range of diversity networks – open to all staff, covering Race, Religion or Belief, Disability, Age, Carers, Gender, Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual and, because we recognise that gender identity is different to sexual orientation, we're the only government department to give transgender people a voice with their own network."
Whilst there are specifics wrt eg same sex partnerships and pension issues wrt sex changes that should be clearly communicated/disseminated, I do wonder whether these points necessitated the publication of such a booklet (complete with glossy photos).
More specifically what has the chapter about "Diversity in HMRC" got to do with the tax issues facing specific sections of the community?
Anyhoo, the booklet will be distributed, not at a taxation event or gathering of tax advisers, but at Pride London (where people gather with the specific objective of discussing tax!).
Those of you who can't attend Pride, can download it here Pride.
Tax does have to be taxing.
Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.
Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies
HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"
I’m afraid that this is very much par for the course from senior management these days. We are being deluged by no doubt worthy initiatives like these on a daily basis. It seems that the powers that be are into virtually anything other than the supposed core activities of collecting tax and providing a service to the public.
ReplyDeleteAn example of their sheer hypocrisy is provided by the huge publicity that was recently trumpeted all over the departmental intranet to the department’s contribution to World Environment Day. Such hypocrisy is rich in the extreme coming from a department that (1) closed many out of town offices, forcing staff into city centre locations with the consequent adverse impact on CO2 emissions and (2) withdrew the environmentally friendly transit envelopes that could be used a hundred or more times, replacing them with ghastly single use plastic polylopes with all the environmental problems they bring.
Never mind, we’ll carry on filling in the spreadsheets, and although no tax will be collected and there will be no service to the public, we can at least rest assured in the knowledge that the department is on top of diversity and green issues.
I remember a case I worked of a transgender woman, whose photo suggested Dick Emery, and she provided an adult baby, cross dressing service in Maidenhead. I was rollocked by the RISK manager, who happened to be a Lesbian, for being non-diverse. Transsexuals have to pay tax, as much as an ordinary person would. HMRC have preoccupied themselves with diveristy, and not on the real meat and potatos, which is the finding of cases
ReplyDeleteHypocrisy indeed. The public face of the department is one of political correctness... yet behind the scenes it bullies its staff into submission.
ReplyDelete