HMRC, gays and lesbians

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Accountancy Age comments on a price I saw in the Telegraph yesterday, saying:

HM Revenue and Customs has been criticised for guidance it has released to assist homosexual and transgender taxpayers.

The 20-page document has been labelled by critics an unnecessary use of taxpayers' money. It advises people in civil partnerships about their tax allowance and inheritance tax thresholds, according to The Telegraph.

It also gives advice to transgender people about claiming pensions under their old or new gender.

All of which is pretty important to those involved, and is information they need. Except of course, no one who has ever read the Torygraph has ever, of course, met a gay or lesbian person, let alone someone who has undergone a sex change. Nor it seems have my old friends the so-called TaxPayer’s Alliance

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the pressure group TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'HMRC is meant to produce simple, clear guidance for everyone, not spend extra money going out of their way to target particular minorities.'

I guess the TPA have never seen the plethora of guides HMRC produce, many of them quite good (and of course, there are exceptions, I know). So what they show is this:

a) they don’t know what they’re talking about

b) they’re not interested in people paying the right amount of tax

c) they don’t like minorities.

I guess that sums up the state of play quite well as far as the TPA is concerned.

For the real story visit The Other Taxpayer’s Alliance β€” altogether better.


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