Identity cards could provide a back door for the
taxman to snoop on people's affairs using a database of National
Insurance numbers.
The card system will use an
existing NI database to log details, potentially making it easier for
tax inspectors to keep tabs. Officials had hoped to base ID cards on a
National Identity Register but will instead use the Customer
Information System run by the Department of Work and Pensions.
This
holds the records of everyone with a NI number, sparking concerns that
HM Revenue & Customs could track a person's personal life through
their ID card, which must be produced whenever a proof of identity is
required.
Guy Herbert, spokesman for the NO 2 ID campaign, said
people would create an “audit trail” when they used their cards. This
would be linked to their NI numbers.
“Of course ID
cards are a tax-gathering tool,” he said. “When the Home Office talks
about 'preventing illegal working' it is getting you to think of
illegal immigrants, but an employer 'verifying your status' with the
National Identity Register will create an audit trail of precisely who
employs whom.”
Gareth Crossman, policy director at
Liberty, added: “The Government sold us the ID card scheme under the
guise of terror and crime protection, but the reality is that it has
the potential for massive, unanticipated state access into our private
lives.”
Damian Green, the Conservatives' shadow immigration
minister, said: “The public will be alarmed at this sinister Big
Brother development.”
The Government denied that
the database would be used for tax enforcement. A spokesman said: “It
is not connected to any plans for improved tax enforcement and the
information held on NI records will not include any tax records
whatsoever.” (source)
Of course not, the government would never change the scope of the ID card, would they !!
When I wrote about this in February, people said I didnt know what I was on about.
I said then that Gordon Brown will kill off the ID card to undermine the Tory plan to cancel the programme and replace it with a tax card, but the NIR would remain, this is effectively the same thing.
Its the NIR that is the dangerous element, not the card which can be called just about anything, but its the NIR that will gather and process all the information about you, currently being collected during passport applications in HMRC offices, hence the need for the data sharing laws.
Say NO to the ID Card, Say NO to the Database State.
NuLab – Destroying Britain from the inside out.
