That's not your ID number, that's your tax demand.

[davywavy]

I would never like to imply that the accountants in the tax office are obsessive nitpickers and information gathereers. Far from it. They might audit me.

However, I was forced to ask some probing questions when I got my latest tax return, part of which read Your personal account number (which should be quoted in all correspondence) is 9JYHBG67FDRWW8MNQ10OYGA5B3X9LK*. That's a thirty-one digit number comprised of both random numbers and letters, so no chances of error in data entry there then.
It really makes me ask, though, just how many people they're expecting to get to pay tax. A bit of mental arithmetic suggests to me that they could cover ₁₀30¹⁶* people with a numbering system like that, and that's more people than there are particles than the observable universe. Add to that my National Insurance number (another 10-digit ID of both numbers and letters) which I also must quote in any correspondence, and suddenly there are more potential taxpayers in the system than there are electrons. To bring it home, that's about 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 possible combinations.
What makes it worse is that it suggests that there are ₁₀30¹⁶ people with my National Insurance number alone, and it rather feels from my tax demand that I'm making NI contributions for all of them as well as me.

But really, 41-digits of identification per person? Surely there is a simpler way to do this?


^{*Not the actual number quoted, but a fair representation.
*If I'm wrong, I'm sure one of you more number-oriented people out there will tell me.}

Comments

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Thank you friend computer!

[(Anonymous)]

Might I suggest you read an excellent book called "Squandered, how Gordon Brown is an utter C*nt" (Not the exact tiltle, but it catches the gist)

I rather look forward to seeing your head explode.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I read the back blurb of that and decided I didn't want to read it, on the basis that I already pretty much know what it says and don't want reminding.

[(Anonymous)]

My personal reference number appears to be "A1"

H

[(Anonymous)]

Edward's appears to be 2

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

That's because you're so keen on paying tax.

number-oriented person

[hiromasaki.livejournal.com]

31 digits, alpha-numeric, right? I'm presuming they're being dumb and including "L" and "O" as letters, despite confusion...

That means you have a total number of combinations of 36³¹ or about 1,759,452,407,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 combinations for your TaxID. A bit less than what you calculated, but at that range, the difference of a few 0's is kind of moot, don't you think?

Re: number-oriented person

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Me and sums have never got on...

[sea-of-flame.livejournal.com]

Oh, god...it's ages ince I've worked in tax, and the unique IDs never used to be that long - I wonder whether they've strted incorporating multiple bits of information into a single reference to 'simplify' things...

...IIRC, there used to be your tax office's reference, your employer's tax office reference - since you as an individual & your employer as an organisation weren't usually dealt with by the same offices, whih used to cause endless confusion - and a unique tax reference as well. I think each of the offices' codes was at least 5 or 6 letters/digits long (which weren't done to exhaustion, I seem to remember they referred to regions & then offices with regions, much as postcodes drill down into levels of detail), and the unique ID was something like 10 or 13 numbers/digits long, even then.

So if they've combined those, that could well lead to, say, 25 digits?

[(Anonymous)]

I am assured by my accountant that the Inland Revenue will be paying me a tidy sum this year, so I won't hear a word said against them. They are clearly hard working and conscientious public servants whose only desire is to assist poorly paid grafters through these dark times.

D

[(Anonymous)]

That D stands for Darling, doesn't it?

V

[(Anonymous)]

How terribly flattering, but you absolutely have to buy me dinner before you can call me that.

Is it V for Vendetta btw?

[(Anonymous)]

Why, of course. A humble vaudevillian veteran cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate....