(slightly OT)
Does anyone know what legal position I'd be in if I wrote to the Inland Revenue and informed them that I was withholding my income tax for several months, as I disagree with the fact my money is being given to businesses that under a free capitalist system should be allowed to fail if they make bad decisions?

I suspect the words 'haven't' 'leg' and 'stand on' will appear in the answer, but thought I'd ask. I may do it anyway to see what happens though.
(Son of Sam-i-am We're all as mad as hatters here, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 9:40, 8 replies)

I really hope you're told to bog off
purely because I just paid mine this morning! The last thing I need to hear is that I could have waited :o)
( Olembe Refuses to write in this space, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 9:43, closed)

Don't worry
My pay will go in either today or Monday and it will be too late to take the tax off that one; the financial director is coming down on Monday so I'm going to discuss it with him.

It's just double standards in my book.

"Own a bank! Make shitloads of money while the sun shines by gambling on imaginary things that even the bankers don't really understand! And when you fuck up the entire world's economy, don't worry, the government will bail you out with a combination of people's hard earned taxes and more imaginary money they borrowed from somewhere else, so don't worry about keeping up the payments on your Bentley!"

If we take Thatcher/Reaganite 'let the market find its own level' to its logical conclusion (and I never agreed with that in the first place) then they should be allowed, nay MADE to go to the wall. But they aren't. Meanwhile my mum's business is probably going to go under, and instead of the government bailing her out, the (very high) business taxes she pays are being used to bail some other cunt out. How the fuck can they justify that?
(Son of Sam-i-am We're all as mad as hatters here, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 9:46, closed)

I think
the really weird thing is that Brown can't even make the banks do what he wants even when he owns them.
( Olembe Refuses to write in this space, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 9:47, closed)

Legal position = JAIL
There is no flexibility in the tax system. Basically you pay it or go to jail. Before jail, however, they will take as much of your property as necessary to pay the tax bill (and recover the legal + bailiff costs). If you have no property, off to clink you go.

The Quakers tried withholding a proportion of their taxes because they didn't want to contribute to military spending. FAIL.

Daily Mail readers would like to withhold a proportion of their taxes because they don't want to pay for students, children, blacks, gays or anything else that doesn't conform to their little-England worldview.
( Linbox has a serious dunk habit, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 9:56, closed)

As I suspected.
I'm not far off being incensed enough to not mind going to jail to make the point though. Perhaps slightly worrying, but I believe in standing up for my principles and hang the consequences.

(note: this approach has caused me problems in the past)
(Son of Sam-i-am We're all as mad as hatters here, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 9:59, closed)

hmmm
they can break the rules, you can't.

It's bafflingly simple, and annoying
(jonboy75, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 11:05, closed)

And this
is allegedly democracy!
(Son of Sam-i-am We're all as mad as hatters here, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 11:10, closed)

I think...
you'd be better off sending them a picture of a seven-legged spider. That would probably delay them for longer...
(annexed, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 13:11, closed)