Thanks to fellow tweeter @goodall4 for pointing me towards this gem.

In a Written Answer to a question from Jim Shannon (a DUP MP), David Gauke (Financial Secretary to the Treasury) stated that the new digital tax accounts to be introduced by HRMC would be:

simple, secure and personalised

Now, I can well believe that they will be “personalised”, and I am even willing to accept that they may be “secure”. I cannot, however, see how anything “digital” introduced by a Government department (especially HMRC) can possibly be “simple”.

First, I assume that the Government Digital Service (GDS) will want to be involved and anyone who has tried to use Gov.uk will know why that fills me with dread.

Second, once GDS are involved I would worry that they will insist that HMRC use Gov.uk/Verify to allow users to log on to their accounts. Unfortunately, the Verify service, like a lot of Government IT projects, doesn’t really work very well (or at all, depending on your definition of “work”).

I foresee a lot of pain and anguish ahead.