Contempt toward suicidal taxpayers

Richard Boyle, a whistleblower in the Australian Taxation Office, reports that the management had adopted a stance of contempt towards taxpayers who felt suicidal because tax debt collectors had left them with no way out.

I can see that there is something insincere about telling a creditor that your debt makes you suicidal. The temptation to exaggerate is obvious.

However, people in debt have often suffered much worse treatment at the hands of rich businesses and the plutocratic state, and all in all I think we must forgive them for lesser wrongs like this.

Boyle is facing criminal charges and could be sent to prison for years.