The Government recently issued a warning to people with more than £3500 in savings. They say that you better be prepared to pay taxes on any interest you might have earned. This follows their warning for people who sell £1000+ of items on eBay or Facebook or Etsy. They’re chasing down the data of every seller to collect the taxes. What they are really saying is they hate people becoming self sufficient. They hate people with savings and who take a little bit of initiative. They don’t care that Facebook, eBay, Google etc bills customers from Ireland to avoid billions in taxes. Or that big banks play by their own rules. Nope, they just want to make sure that Aunt Sarah who sold some arts and crafts and saved the money in an interest earning account pays her extra £87 of taxes. It probably costs them millions to crack down on these tiny amounts but it’s the principle of the matter - we want you to know that no matter how small you make a step forward, we are here to take it from you. If they truly cared about poor people, they would encourage self sufficiency. If you save £1000, we will give you an extra £20 bonus. If you sell stuff, we will make the first £20k tax free so you can get going. A smart government would want its citizens to save money and sell stuff online. The benefits to society would be worth a lot more than the pennies collected in taxes.