Uncertain taxes

I agree with my former colleague Tim Flinn (Letters, 3 December) about Gordon Brown and the Peter Principle, of which Edward Heath was another example.

To illustrate Gordon Brown’s toxic legacy, on Tuesday I received a demand for tax for the financial year 2013-14, payable on 31 January and 31 July, 2015, which is fair enough, but also for a sum payable on 31 January, 2015, for the year 2014-15, ie for income I have not yet received.

Such out-of-the-blue demands offend two of Adam Smith’s canons of taxation: namely, certainty and convenience. I would also say that they are immoral.

How can governments expect taxpayers to be honest when they are so sneaky?

Colin McAllister

South Street

St Andrews