Yesterday I had a call from the Inland Revenue. Nothing exciting and I dealt with it on the spot of course; this will be because I'm freelance and a straightforward case. I'm a small part, in other words, one those businesses having to put up with thousands of queries from Her Majesty's revenue. What do they imagine people are there for - running their own business or running the revenue (unpaid)?
A major concern to me was the lack of information the Revenue had. I've been freelance now for 12 years, and my status is clear - I'm a sole trader. The first thing they asked me was whether I was a limited company. If I'd had the time I'd have asked them to go and find out - they've had the details for long enough.
It's easy and in a way cheap to go around moaning about the levels of paperwork with which small businesses have to contend. But queries in their thousands, sometimes - as in my case - about information they should already have, simply isn't right.
