A Brief Flirt with Bureaucracy

I’m just back from a month’s holiday in the USA, after staying with two of my kids (they live close to each other in Oklahoma). Very nice and I am now rather overweight.

They don’t skimp on their portions over there.

Among other matters claiming my attention on my return was an email from the provincial government asking me to pay something.

I’m running on empty at the moment, but what (and why) would they like me to cough up, and how would they like it – in cash, bank transfer, blood or promises?

Let me see. The letter is a long one, with an important looking title, and it's got the date and even the time (!) sent: 05/12/2024 at precisely 21:59:27 - half a minute to ten at night.

It’s a fascinating world where the bureaucrats dwell.

The missive comes with a ‘don’t answer’ address. See, I have to click on the underlined bit which will take me straight to the page to tell me how much and what for.

Simple.

OK, they want my NIF number. You would think, having sent me the email, they would know that it was me answering it – and if someone else wanted to pay, some confused hacker I suppose, then whatthehell, hey?

Anyway, now they want another number, the one on the top of my Residence Card, so I give them that.

Then, to another page, this time from Hacienda, the tax authority, which says I need ‘un clave’.

Fine, well give me a clave then, why don’t you.

You can’t pay without a clave. Like a password they give you.

I try again.

It sends me this time to a page which says that ‘it doesn’t exist, try again later’.

Do you want the money or not I ask my computer screen. I’m kind of guessing it’s for the annual car tax, but… who knows?

The original email – they sent it twice – says that if I don’t answer, they’ll send me a letter instead. Well, that sounds like a plan I think.

Then I remember, there are some webpages that don’t like Firefox, so I try everything again with Edge, or whatever the Microsoft web-browser is called – sometimes that works.

For some reason, it has switched to English by this stage – must have been something I said. It sent me this:

‘Goes him to him to send a letter by mail postcard to its domicile for tax purposes. When receives this letter again will be able to access to the Record Cl@ve and to register’.

Anyway, how was your day?