Some years ago, George Osborne announced a plan to do away with tax returns.

They planned systems that spoke to each other so that the taxman knew about all of your sources of income and could collect the tax more efficiently. Why should you have to declare income when they know what it is already? [Always a problem with state pensions.]

Apparently, they are woefully behind with implementing this plan. Whilst a reduction in personal administration is a welcome improvement, if it cannot deliver, or gets it wrong, trying to negotiate with a computer programme about an incorrect tax bill will be no joke.

The system that’s already in place is erratic, to say the least. Our current experience of HMRC is that there’s nobody there to sort things out if the computer can’t cope. Even simple things, like registering for VAT, are taking six months.

It’s immensely frustrating. So, despite the Government’s best intentions, we are on the road to (administrative) Hell.

Standby to suffer.