Two things. Firstly isn't amazing that with all these revelations, not a single act of omission or forgetfulness has been to the benefit of the tax payer rather than to the benefit of the politician. Surely the law of averages would suggest that, if these really are mistakes, then there should be cases of under-claiming coming to light too...
Secondly, would this really be allowed in business. I don't mean so much the "claim everything you can" mentality. I suspect that we've all worked with people who thought like that - and with their opposite who would not think about claiming for a newspaper or other small expense and who have to be reminded that they paid for a team lunch. In general this is private money and so long as the owners of the business know what is going on and are content, then fine,
My concern is with a group of people who are being exposed - not as fraudsters or cheats - but as penny pinching tight-wads who seem to spend a huge amount of time working out how to ensure that they spend nothing of their own while claiming as much as possible from us - the tax payer. As one of the "owners" in this circumstance, I do now know and I am not happy. Mostly I'm not happy with the view that, although a particular politician has been exposed as making a number of "errors" and, as importantly, as a person determined to screw every penny possible out of a job in which they were supposed to be serving the people, feel no inclination to resign.
This is a system which desperately needs an overhaul if public confidence is to be restored. A wave of sackings or resignations would help too. Why not simply use the same rules that the rest of us have to cope with so far as tax is concerned - is the the expense wholly and appropriately attributable to the business being undertaken? No need for a new set of rules - why not just treat everyone the same.
The Secret Consultant for Prime Minister, I say...
SC
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