A false sense of secrecy
This is just a hunch, but I believe that the tax people haven’t embraced the online access model. Sure, there’s lip service, in a website. There’s also a help desk, staffed by people who may not know much geography, but they’re willing to ask questions.
Let’s move on from there, shall we? In order to register, you need some particular bits of information about yourself, and that makes sense. I mean, what if someone else wanted to pay your tax account, in your place? Really. I went through the registration process for myself, and received the screen informing me that I’d get my login code, by post, in a week or so. OK, security. When I offered to go through the registration process for my wife, that was refused. Her voice was required. As if they could tell…
But, I’m willing to play the game, and so with all the requisites in front of her, she called the same help desk. And went through the same “updates” as I had, only a few minutes before. She actually received the invitation to try logging in, electronically. And now the model starts to look a little shabby.
Armed with her particulars, she got through to the “please create some security questions”. Five of them. Based, almost exclusively, on her family tree. I may be a bit more involved in the field than others, but it is SO easy to find out the forebears of an “average Joe” nowadays.
In summary, the registration process is a mixed bag. Some really secure questions, like how much were you assessed for pension, last year, and some nonsense questions about your oldest niece’s name, or your favourite dog. An illusion. And when the process was complete, she received the screen informing me that she’d get her login code, by post, in a week or so.
