Rotten Apples Read Online Free PDF

if we think we’ve discovered one anomaly because it tends to frighten a bent taxpayer into telling us about all sorts of other little fiddles we knew nothing about. It nearly always pays off.’
    â€˜I see. And do you, I mean you plural as in you officers of the Inland Revenue rather than you personally, ever get tax assessments wrong?’
    â€˜But of course we do,’ he said, looking both astonished and superior, as though that were something self-evident that she ought to have known. She did, of course, having had some wrong-assessments herself and having read of plenty of others in the newspapers.
    â€˜Why?’
    â€˜Do you want the party line or one of the others?’ Jason sat up straight again.
    Willow tried to suppress her growing amusement behind a chill exterior. ‘Try me with both sorts.’
    â€˜Okay. The official explanation is that if taxpayers all gave us full and accurate information on time there would be no mistakes.’
    â€˜And the others?’
    â€˜The politer explanation is that mistakes occur because of inadequate training in the new provisions of the Finance Act each year.’ Jason looked at her across the desk, clearly enjoying himself. ‘And of course the real one is that if you pay peanuts you get monkeys and monkeys produce a lot of crap.’
    â€˜Yes, I see,’ said Willow, struggling even harder to maintain her mask of severity until she remembered Fiona Fydgett and what had happened to her. At that all amusement vanished. ‘Why are your errors considered to be different from those made by taxpayers who receive no training at all in the provisions of the Finance Act or anything else?’
    â€˜Because we’re honest even if some of us are stupid,’ said Jason easily. ‘Taxpayers are all dishonest.’
    Willow blinked. ‘All of them?’
    He laughed. ‘You don’t need to look so surprised. When you’ve worked for the Revenue for as long as I have you get pretty cynical about taxpayers’so-called honesty.’
    â€˜Do they ever pay more than they owe?’ asked Willow, mentally filing his chilling—and wrong—opinion for her report.
    â€˜Occasionally, but it’s a rare one who actually does that. Quite a lot don’t claim back what they’re entitled to, but that’s slightly different.’
    â€˜But what happens if you’ve overestimated an assessment and they pay it?’
    â€˜When it becomes clear that’s what happened we pay them a refund.’
    â€˜With interest?’
    â€˜If we’ve kept their money for more than twelve months.’ Jason put up his dark eyebrows. ‘Why do you ask?’
    â€˜And yet they have to pay interest from the instant any tax is overdue. Do you think that’s fair?’
    â€˜My dear girl, it’s hardly for me to answer a question like that,’ he said. Willow, who thought that he must have been at least ten years her junior, did not give him the satisfaction of reacting to his calculated insult. ‘If you don’t like the law, write to your MP.’
    â€˜Doesn’t it even surprise you?’ she asked.
    â€˜Nope.’
    â€˜I see; thank you.’ Getting up, Willow wanted to lay a hand on the top of her head to make sure it did not fly off, pushed up by the force of her rage on behalf of her fellow-taxpayers. Such unequal treatment seemed worse than merely unjust. At the door of Jason’s office, she caught sight of Cara Saks.
    â€˜Did you hear any of that?’ Willow asked as she left Jason’s room.
    Cara nodded, still looking scared.
    â€˜Well, what do you think?’
    â€˜I think it’s outrageous actually,’ she whispered, ‘but it doesn’t do to say so where Len can hear. He wants a word with you.’
    â€˜Fine,’ said Willow, looking down at her watch. ‘Tell him that I’m going out for lunch now and that I’ll be back at my desk in an