[Previous entry: "The Year of Desktop Linux"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Psychics in the CIA"]

01/04/2004 Archived Entry: "All your bank accounts are belong to us"

A Groklaw reader has passed on the news that, starting in May 2004, employers in the UK will be required to remit payroll tax, and in May 2005 required to file returns, electronically, using "approved" software. (Smaller employers get a few years' extension.) The Penguinistas are upset that all the approved sofware requires Windows. I'd be more upset about this little wrinkle:

The Payroll Standard requires the payroll product to have the capability to exchange electronically end of year data on forms P14 and P35 ... and be capable of arranging for the payment of the amounts owing to the Collector of Taxes by electronic methods. [Emphasis added.]

So if I'm reading this correctly, UK employers must use payroll software that can automatically transfer money from their bank accounts to Inland Revenue. And Inland Revenue approves the software. And all the approved software is "closed source" so we don't know what little gotchas might be included. What next? E-attachment orders? E-subpoenas? Heck, why involve humans at all? Why not just have Inland Revenue take over all British bank accounts?

And that's not to mention the hazards of running software like this on Windows, which has about as much security as the average playground. Inland Revenue is actually clueless enough to suggest you can file from "a library or Internet Cafe". Yep, really secure. In what world do these imbeciles live?

brad