Further to several Notices to HMRC, one of their solicitors has written to my strawman. It is over two pages long so I quote a few excerpts from it below. My comments are in brackets and italics:
Dear Strawman
re: Strawman
I act for HM Revenue and Customs "HMRC".
(After such an opening, what more needs to be said?)
I have been passed the following correspondence:
Your letters to HMRC - (he lists the dates and they are not letters, they are Notices)
HMRC letters to you - (he lists the dates)
The correspondence relates to a payment of tax including accruing interest on the outstanding tax and a penalty owed by you as follows:
(He lists the amounts etc)
Your correspondence records a reluctance to pay the outstanding tax for the following reasons:
1. You have sent negotiable instruments described as 'presentments' reducing the amount of the balancing payment to zero.
2. You have described yourself as a 'blessed living soul', (etc, etc) and relied on such descriptions as the basis for asserting that no tax should be levied on or paid by you.
(He then quotes one of my paragraphs stating that living souls should not be taxed, unless HMRC can prove I am a government created fiction.)
I advise that HMRC is familiar with letters similar to your own that seem to be downloaded from a site in the United States of America. The subject matter of these letters have no force or legal weight in this jurisdiction and have no effect in respect of HMRC's statutory powers.
HMRC addresses all taxpayers by their legal names; in the case of individual taxpayers this is their name as registered on their birth certificate or if they have changed their name by deed poll the name registered on that deed, or in the case of a body corporate the name given in the Deed of Incorporation or partnership deed for that entity.
(The next paragraph says they have no record of my changing my name and he thinks jane of the doe family is another legal entity and they don't mind what legal entity I call myself).
It is not for HMRC to speculate on this point and until you establish otherwise you will be assessed on the basis of the current information which is that you are a living individual who is resident in the UK.
(He then quotes all the Acts and of course, I did file a self assessment return, hence the subject matter of this letter. He says it is now a statutory debt due and payable to the Crown. HMRC has a statutory obligation to collect this debt and will pursue me for recovery of the full amount if I fail to pay. If I wish to dispute ... etc. etc.)
We do not consider the presentments or the information contained in your letters provide any legal basis under UK law to resist payment of tax.
Until we see such documentary evidence HMRC will not change your form of address and will continue to correspond with you in your original name.
Should you choose to ignore or fail to respond to such correspondence we will draw this letter to the court's attention if the issue comes before the court in support of any application that can be made for costs incurred in recovering payment of outstanding tax.
Yours faithfully
end-------------
Doesn't he know that when you start a letter with Dear Mr or Mrs, you should use yours sincerely at the end?
Incidentally, my first invoice on HMRC has been served.