You may already have received one in the post recently, you may be due to receive one tucked away amongst all those Christmas Cards, or maybe you won’t get one at all. What am I talking about? The answer is the government’s latest attempt at ‘open governance’ – your very own personal tax statement.

What is it and what will it achieve?
It’s a two-page personal letter, allegedly telling you how much tax you paid last year and how the government spent it. Let’s firstly dismiss any fears that it will require you to pay more tax – it is not a tax demand and is sent for information only.

So why does the government bother? They’ve privatised Royal Mail, so it can’t be an attempt to keep them in business, although there will be significant postage costs for the taxpayer to pick up. George Osborne’s explanation, when he announced their planned introduction a couple of years ago, was that he simply wanted us to know how much we were each contributing and how it was being spent.

However, it simply does not tell the whole picture. The only taxes that are mentioned are income tax and national insurance contributions – at least they acknowledge that NI is tax masquerading under another name. But where is the mention of all the other taxes that we pay?

Stamp duty when we move house, air passenger duty when we fly abroad on holiday, insurance premium tax on every policy we pay for, and what about cigarette, alcohol and gambling duties every time we want to sin a little? No mention of any of them or the VAT that we suffer when we buy anything other than what the Chancellor defines as a necessity.
Sorry to appear to take sides, George, but these personal tax statements are completely useless.