Nanny's Money Making Scam

As we all know, Nanny loves to spend money; the more she takes, in tax receipts, the more she wants to spend.

It is a vicious circle.

Now you may wonder how it is that she is able to get away with such profligacy, without the voters rising up, the answer is simple; she, in effect, bribes the voters by paying them to work for her.

There are now over 6 million British citizens working for Nanny, in the public sector; no wonder the unemployment figures are so low!

Keeping the electorate docile, and beholdent to her, is only one part of the equation; the other part of the equation, namely raising money, requires a little more creative thought.

That is where Nanny's special "friend", Gordon "Smiler" Brown, comes in; being rather cerebral, he loves nothing better than to come up with imaginative ways of raising tax revenues without people realising it.

His latest wheeze is the best yet.

31 January was the deadline for completing tax returns, for tax year end April 2004. Now our dear friends in the Inland Revenue have been encouraging people to file their returns on line; the rationale, so they say, is that it is easier and quicker to do it this way.

The reality though has turned out to be somewhat different, the Inland Revenue site had a mysterious glitch this weekend. Those taxpayers who had followed the Revenue's advice to file their returns on line, could not actually file them.

The result?

They missed the deadline!

Now here's the real plum in this sticky pudding, the Revenue is threatening to fine them for late filing. The fines come in at a stonking £100, plus £60 per day.

Easy money isn't Nanny?