Tax credits, everybody loses

Bishop Hill has an example of the way that the current tax credits system is failing, a company needs to make up some shortfalls and is so asking it's employees to work overtime (at twice the normal rate of pay) to do this. The employees are refusing because it will mess up their tax credits.

The employees lose, as they cannot get the extra money that is being offered for extra work now as it will endanger their tax credits later. The government loses as it would have gained extra revenue though tax rather than giving out though the credits. The company loses as it cannot complete it's order. The companies client loses as they do not get their supplies when they wanted, likewise their clients, all the way down the line to the final customer. Who, if they are in this country, lose twice as it is their money that is being cycled through government, with the subsequent losses that any money flowing though government experiences, to pay for the credits that are making the product that they want harder to get hold of.

Everybody loses.

Except possibly the legion of bureaucrats needed to administer this hopelessly over complicated system. A system so complex it requires each claimant to

to fill out a ****ing 500-page form (I exaggerate only slightly) EVERY ****ING YEAR. And it's a pig of a form, they want to know absolutely everything whether relevant or not. We're bright people and it takes us hours to fill it all in and puzzle out what they're asking. Most people must find it completely perplexing and completely frustrating, so it's no wonder if so many of them are done wrong.

according to Tom di Giovanni.