OK, this has nothing particular to do with writing or musings. Unless of course you are having an income from your writing.

Filth-bags claiming to be from a tax office and demanding money is a scam on the rise again.

As a retired tax official, this is one area where I am waiting for one of the filth-bags who try to scam to phone me and demand money in an aggressive or smarmy fashion I have so many questions to ask them.

Fine for me, but if like most honest folk you are a bit nervy of the ‘Tax Officials’ it can be a scary experience which these creeps prey on. Because for ordinary folk, how are you expected to know all the ins and outs of a system?

Therefore  here are just two official links where you can seek advice from:

UK: HMRC- https://www.gov.uk/report-suspicious-emails-websites-phishing/report-hmrc-phishing-emails-texts-and-phone-call-scams.

USA: IRS- https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/tax-scams-consumer-alerts.

For other nations you will find most tax authorities have a similar advice page.

If they make any phone threats that they will be calling with legal notices then contact the official authorities.

If you are worried about anyone calling always have your mobile handy with the tax authority number handy (yes getting through might take 30 minutes), but you saying ‘Excuse me, I was talking to someone from your office’ and dialling will put some off. You can also say ‘Really? Let me just phone my accountant,’ and dial any old number. Otherwise close to door, phone both tax office and police.

There will never, ever be any requests out of the blue. If you owe anything you will be getting all sorts of official paper with details on it and a whole host of ‘advising you of your right’.

Don’t pay unless you are expecting to.

And make sure you pass this information on to any vulnerable people you may know.