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The UK government's Low Value Purchase System is a waste of time

shkspr.mobi

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Re: The UK government's Low Value Purchase System is a waste of time

#91

Post by throwaway894345 »

tardedmeme wrote: post #68
throwaway894345 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Illinois online forms are egregiously bad. A couple examples off the top of my head: I was traveling through the state and got on a toll road by accident without cash to pay the tolls, the toll booth employee said I could just pay online, pointing to a sign that said "missed a toll? pay online at ", so we continued our trip intending to pay the tolls online. At the end of the trip, I logged on to pay our tolls--the a…

I feel like half of these are quickly resolved in court when you explain what happened and the judge calls the state a bunch of fucking morons and dismisses the case. But the other half of the time the judge won't use common sense. Also the state is relying on you not wanting to show up in front of a judge out of your own state to contest what I presume is a relatively small amount of dollars.

I don’t doubt it, but just so we’re clear having to go to court is already a colossal failure in the first place.

Re: The UK government's Low Value Purchase System is a waste of time

#93

Post by beAbU »

jonathanlydall wrote: post #62
lowercased wrote: post #5

My spouse did business at a collector show in Illinois years ago. We filed some sales tax thing, as we collected sales tax (as we were told to do) and remitted it. Did that for... 2 years, IIRC, then didn't do that show again. We got letters threatening that we would be penalized if we didn't fill out the form and remit our collected tax. There was no option to say 'nothing'. I mean... we did one year - put 0. Then w…

In South Africa we have a TV license which any shop selling TV’s is required by law to report the buyer’s TV license number for any purchase. The idea is that it funds public broadcasting and productions thereof, but like a lot of SOEs here, there is loads of corruption and inefficiencies, I only use my TV for streaming of content which is not produced locally, so I resent having to pay it each year. However, it’s ap…

Heh, took me about a year after moving from SA to Ireland to get them to leave me alone about my tv license.

Here they have a tv license as well, but so far I've sidestepped it because I shipped my TV over, but one day I'll probably need to pay for one again. Only problem is now its something like 250 euro, not Ront, so it's a lot more pricey!

Re: The UK government's Low Value Purchase System is a waste of time

#94

Post by calvinmorrison »

llbbdd wrote: post #86
dashundchen wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is dog licensing that crazy? You are required to license and register a car that's used in public. Your dog may always be on your property but for almost every other dog that is not that case. A dog can be a public health threat, in both terms of disease and attacks on people or other dogs. Many states require rabies vaccinations for example .The owners are ultimately liable for that and there should be a way to…

Simple registration I have less of a problem with for some of the reasons you listed. Cross-reference with vet records, have fines specifically for missing rabies vaccinations etc for the sake of public health, sure. Maybe even bill me a nominal paperwork amount for the initial registration, maybe waive it for adoptions or make it an automatic thing the shelter does and builds into their fees. Having an annual subscr…

[flagged]

Re: The UK government's Low Value Purchase System is a waste of time

#95

Post by pluralmonad »

dashundchen wrote: post #81
llbbdd wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was going to comment "dog license???" but I looked it up for my county and I had no idea this was a thing. I'm in awe. I adopted an adult dog ~9 years ago. He has issued literally one single bark in that span. He stays indoors or in my fenced-in yard 100% of the time because of some health issues. I'm supposed to pay an annual fee for this or they'll fine me ?? Nobody ever told me this, not the shelter, not the vet…

Why is dog licensing that crazy? You are required to license and register a car that's used in public. Your dog may always be on your property but for almost every other dog that is not that case. A dog can be a public health threat, in both terms of disease and attacks on people or other dogs. Many states require rabies vaccinations for example .The owners are ultimately liable for that and there should be a way to…

I've never asked anyone's permission to keep my dog. She barks at every car that pulls in my driveway like a good girl.

Re: The UK government's Low Value Purchase System is a waste of time

#96

Post by willtemperley »

willtemperley wrote: post #18

Just an anecdote on UK local government tech incompetence: I received a ticket “Failing to comply with a prohibition on certain types of vehicle” from Hackney council. Initially I thought my car had been cloned as I haven’t driven for months, but either a person or an AI had misread my car number plate. It was all just such a waste of time, especially navigating the Ai designed to annoy you into paying.

Addendum: The really annoying part was when the AI asked me for my ticket number, then asked me for the two digit contravention code.

First, surely they know the contravention code because they gave me the ticket?!

Second, the two digit contravention code was actually a part of a three digit alphanumeric code found in this sentence "52m Failing to comply with a prohibition".

Welcome to the future.

Re: The UK government's Low Value Purchase System is a waste of time

#97

Post by jonathanlydall »

beAbU wrote: post #93
jonathanlydall wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In South Africa we have a TV license which any shop selling TV’s is required by law to report the buyer’s TV license number for any purchase. The idea is that it funds public broadcasting and productions thereof, but like a lot of SOEs here, there is loads of corruption and inefficiencies, I only use my TV for streaming of content which is not produced locally, so I resent having to pay it each year. However, it’s ap…

Heh, took me about a year after moving from SA to Ireland to get them to leave me alone about my tv license. Here they have a tv license as well, but so far I've sidestepped it because I shipped my TV over, but one day I'll probably need to pay for one again. Only problem is now its something like 250 euro, not Ront, so it's a lot more pricey!

I'd rather pay EUR 250 a year when I know the money is used for genuine public benefit rather than ZAR 250 a year where it's mostly enriching people who don't do anything of real value.

Re: The UK government's Low Value Purchase System is a waste of time

#98

Post by xtiansimon »

> “But there's a wrinkle. What if I've sold nothing? Well, I still have to log on, wait for an MFA code to be send, click through, and report "No Business". I think that's a waste of time.”

Meh. If you’re a business in the US and your products subject to sales tax, you must file even if you have no sales.

I made the mistake as a young freelancer to get a certificate of authority and not file when I had zero sales.

Re: The UK government's Low Value Purchase System is a waste of time

#99

Post by lowercased »

gottorf wrote: post #83
vharuck wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Why would they ever fix the system. Some number of people will just pay it and those people are pure profit. Heck, fixing the system costs money. The system is run by employees of whatever agency handles taxes. Neither the employees nor the agency keep a portion of the taxes. If they do not have the money or will to fix it, people are supposed to pressure their representatives to give them the money and mandate. If…

> pressure the representatives In the GP's case, it sounds like they were on a road show, and they do not live in Illinois at all. Of course, that doesn't prevent them from contacting a IL state representative for redress, but it is an edge case of sorts.

Correct. We were in Michigan, then later North Carolina. We did collector shows in a few states. The organizers told us to collect the tax and gave us vendors information on how to remit to the state agency. We didn't do it at first, then later, as more money came in, we did it for a few years in one state, then another, trying to be 'good' about the whole thing. Was a massive headache.

What would have made so much more sense is for a state agent to have someone come on site to trade shows like this to make it easy/simple to fill in the proper forms, take money, and increase state inflow. Two people working for a couple days would be a few hundred dollars(?). At a tradeshow with 200 vendors, most doing thousands and some tens of thousands in sales... it would be relatively easy money.

That obviously becomes intrusive to some folks, but... would have helped those states and made things easier on us.

Re: The UK government's Low Value Purchase System is a waste of time

#100

Post by lowercased »

elAhmo wrote: post #22
lowercased wrote: post #5

My spouse did business at a collector show in Illinois years ago. We filed some sales tax thing, as we collected sales tax (as we were told to do) and remitted it. Did that for... 2 years, IIRC, then didn't do that show again. We got letters threatening that we would be penalized if we didn't fill out the form and remit our collected tax. There was no option to say 'nothing'. I mean... we did one year - put 0. Then w…

You can't just start collecting sales tax before registering with the state, and likewise to stop collecting you need to deregister. It is a fairly standard procedures every accountant is aware of.

Sure you can. It's what we as vendors were told to do by the show organizers. They told us the rates to collect and gave us info as to how/where to remit the money. States absolutely would take the money.
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