Friday 31 December 2010

HMRC Joins Twitter

HMRC is now trialing Twitter.

@HMRCgovuk

A happy and peaceful New Year to all my loyal readers.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Wednesday 22 December 2010

HMRC's Secret Survey


My thanks to a loyal reader who dropped me a summery of the Face to Face Customer Survey Satisfaction Results April to November 2010:

-98% of customers are satisfied with the service they received.
-98% of customers were happy with the time between requesting and receiving an appointment.
-99% of customers felt they were dealt with in a professional way.
-97% found the EC environment friendly
-99% felt they were treated as individuals by staff.
-73% of interviews were tax, 17% Tax Credits, 10% Other HMRC
-54% of customers tried to get information from other HMRC options before their appointment (48% tried phone, 6% wrote and 7% website)

As you can see, they are very good indeed.

Yet HMRC have not publicised these either externally or internally.

For why?

HMRC's "strategy" is to move away from face to face encounters with "customers", survey results that show they do this very well are not at all welcome. Indeed Richard James, Head of Face to Face operations, is looking for ways to increase the 54% of respondees who used other HMRC options first.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Tuesday 21 December 2010

Question About Hartnett

Question

Why did Dave Hartnett, Permanent Secretary for Tax, fly business class to Mumbai at the beginning of December with Melissa Tatton (HMRC's Deputy Director of Business International) to participate in a third rate talking shop for Indian accountants and tax officials?

The four nights they spent in rooms on the executive floor of the five-star ITC Maratha Hotel in Mumbai would doubtless have been bearable, but was their trip really necessary?

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Thursday 16 December 2010

Staff Survey Results - Motivational Response



The 2010 HMRC staff survey results have now been published on the HMRC website. (For comparison purposes here is the 2009 survey - published by the government in 2010)

Hoorah!

Here they are : Staff Survey Results 2010.

- Engagement index 3% lower than last year and 23% below civil service average.

- 12% would recommend HMRC to work in (3% down on last year), and 15% are proud to tell people they work form HMRC (3% down).

- 9% think that changes made are for the better (1% down).

- 12% think that HMRC is run well (1% down), 18% think that senior managers will take action based on the survey (3% up)...and so on.

You can read what Strathie said (in June this year) about the last survey (which was published in February 2010) here.

Here is a brief extract:

"We may not see much, if any, improvement in the next set of People Survey results. These issues are deep-seated and will take time to turn round; with your help, we can do that."

All in all things have got worse, even the response rate (69%) is not that encouraging.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

HMRC's Blockade


It seems that HMRC are enacting some form of "blockade" (usually regarded as an act of war when conducted on the international stage) against Christopher Lunn & Co (CLAC), a Sussex accounting firm.

The firm claims that HMRC is refusing to deal with it, and will not allow it to file certain tax returns while it is being investigated.

According to the FT CLAC were raided by HMRC in June 2010 and the firm's files taken.

Despite the investigation going on for the last 6 months, HMRC have not told them why they are being investigated. CLAC suspect it is part of HMRC's much vaunted (unless of course you are Vodafone or a friend of Hartnett) anti avoidance campaign.

In a letter sent by HMRC to clients on 30 November 2010, HMRC stated:

"The Commissioners of Revenue and Customs have come to the decision that in light of all the circumstances, there is no alternative other than to cease to deal with CLAC as an agent or representative for any of our customers. This includes communication in writing, via the telephone or by any electronic means."

A decision on the High Court civil action is due in the coming weeks.

Guilty until proven innocent appears to be the maxim of HMRC.

Should this department be given such powers, and be allowed to treat firms and individuals in such a high handed manner without due process?

Power of this nature, especially when in the hands of unelected bureaucrats, corrupts.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Wednesday 15 December 2010

Staff Morale - Another Survey Result Missing In Action

Staff Morale

Well folks the results of the civil service staff survey for 2010 were published last week.

Unfortunately, they have not yet been published on a department by department basis.

Could it be that some departments are trying to hide their shame, and will release the results at a time when everyone is pissed on the last working day before Christmas?

The deadline for departmental publication is not very challenging, 31 January 2011!

In the event that anyone has a copy please either leak it to me or WikiLeaks.

Thanks.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Tuesday 14 December 2010

Get A Receipt!

ReceiptAs the deadline for filing tax returns online approaches, those who use this method would be advised to read the following cautionary tale reported in the Observer.

"I used the HMRC online income tax return system last year, but received a £100 fine for non-submission. My return was on time and I have no intention of paying. A formal letter to HMRC has produced another snarling request for payment. ML, Rugby

When you wrote to me eight months ago I asked HMRC to sort out what should have been a straightforward issue and, in April, it confirmed it was in the process of responding to you. It insisted there were no problems with the online reporting system last year. In May someone suggested you resubmit the return through the Government Gateway, but you tried and failed twice.

In June your tax office sent you a paper version of the tax return that you sent in, but the £100 fine was still outstanding. Your appeal was upheld in November.

Another year's deadline for filing electronic tax returns is close; readers should make sure they get a safe-receipt email from HMRC
."

Make sure that you get a receipt!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Monday 13 December 2010

Confused!

Confused!
I have to admit that I am confused.

According to an article published on Integral Search and Selection HMRC has warned taxpayers that it never supports tax avoidance schemes, even those that have been assigned a scheme reference number (SRN).

HMRC has issued this warning in its Spotlights internet publication, which aims to outline the risks of being involved in any form of tax avoidance, whether intentionally or "unwittingly".

That being the case, how come it gave the green light to Vodafone's tax avoidance scheme?

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Thursday 9 December 2010

Stifling Business

Barin DrainIt seems that, despite claiming that it wants to simplify the tax system, the government is determined to add ever more layers of complexity.

That at least is the conclusion to be drawn from the government's proposals to clamp down on tax avoidance (a perfectly legal activity) by introducing a general anti avoidance rule (GAAR). GAAR was considered by the previous Labour administration. However, it was decided that it would be too expensive and complex to administer.

Critics note that the effects of GAAR will be most keenly felt by small and medium sized business.

Accountancy Age quote Andrew Jupp, head of tax at Haysmacintyre:

"It is unnecessary and unwelcome, and will introduce yet more uncertainty into the tax system. Unless it is coupled with a vast range of pre-transaction approvals it will stifle businesses ability to operate and make sensible commercial decisions.

Whilst the largest British companies might be able to cope with a GAAR, I cannot see how the smaller businesses, which are the lifeblood of the UK economy, will manage. These businesses constantly tell us that they want less red tape, not more
."

James Bullock of McGrigors said:

"The problem is that there will inevitably be a situation - probably many situations - where commercial pressures mean that transactions have to be completed before specific HMRC clearance can be obtained confirming that they do not fall foul of a GAAR.

You will then have precisely the situation that applies at the moment - HMRC challenging the tax treatment of transactions after the event, on the basis that the GAAR applies. Taxpayers will oppose these challenges and the whole thing will end up being interpreted by the Courts - just as happens at the moment
".

GAAR will simply push companies to move out of the country and reduce the tax take, thus being counterproductive to the economic well being of the country and the coffers of the government so hungry for cash.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Wednesday 8 December 2010

Emulating The Banks

WTF

The Mail is venting is spleen against HMRC over the claims being sent out by HMRC for tax underpayments (estimated to affect 1.4 million people).

Whilst it is perfectly correct that HMRC reclaims underpaid tax, the issue that wrankles with the Mail is HMRC's response to appeals sent in by many on the basis of the A19 tax concession (which allows claims for underpaid tax to be abandoned under certain circumstances).

HMRC are sending out standardised computer generated rejections of appeals from one centre, stating simply that the appeal does not fall within the A19 concession.

This is a similar approach taken by banks and other financial institutions when rejecting people's claims for excess overdraft charges, mis-sold endowments etc; one that is designed to stone wall claims.

HMRC have belatedly realised that, whilst this approach may be OK for tax professionals (who can fight their corner), doing this to a large number of people who normally do not interact on a daily basis with HMRC (but who make excellent copy - eg widowed pensioners - for tabloids) is very unwise. As such the content and format of the letters is now being reviewed, and a more "personalised" rejection will be sent in the future.

Whatever the format of the rejection, the taxpayer can still appeal and if rejected again can go to the Adjudicator's Office.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Tuesday 7 December 2010

Staff Morale - Another Survey Result Coming Soon!

The Scream

Coming soon to a pc near you, the full horror of the staff survey result....

"Staff engagement score for HMRC - 34% - down 2%. Released later this week...

Do you think HMRC is managed well? Also down. Badly
...."

The humanity!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Monday 6 December 2010

Staff Morale - Another Survey Result

Staff Survey

I understand that the results of this year's civil service staff survey are due to be released this week, and that HMRC's scores are worse than last year's.

Please could someone forward me the survey, or a link to it, as and when it is released?

Thanks.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Friday 3 December 2010

Your Country Needs You!



Despite the ongoing restructuring of HMRC, which will result in a further reduction in staff numbers by approximately 13,000, HMRC still need to take in and train younger recruits who will be the "future" of HMRC.

As such, HMRC are advertising for new recruits for its Tax Professional Development Programme.

Its advertisement describes the work as "fascinating, vital work that helps keep the UK working".

Hyperbole, or reality?

Comments from current employees very welcome!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Thursday 2 December 2010

HMRC Are Not Psychic

Fortune Teller

Quite rightly HMRC are more than fed up with having to chase up tax credit claimants who do not update them with changes in their circumstances.

The government claims that approximately £400M a year is being overpaid in tax credits, because parents don't tell HMRC about changes in their childcare costs. Approximately 345,000 tax credits paid in 2008/09 (4.5% of the total) contained errors relating to childcare.

Aside from the loss of tax revenue, there are additional costs incurred by HMRC in chasing up and correcting these errors.

Tax credits is just one example of the many of Gordon Brown's ever so complex and unwieldy "tweaks" that he was addicted to making to the tax system.

It is high time that the tax system be radically overhauled and simplified. A good staring point would be to abolish tax credits and raise personal allowances to a decent level, eg £15K.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Wednesday 1 December 2010

Sign Here, Where It Says "For The Rest of My Life"

Debt

How nice to read that, during this time of economic crisis, HMRC is advising struggling businesses applying to defer taxes to "max out" their company credit cards first.

This helpful advice needless to say costs the hapless businesses 20% or more in interest payments, plus a 1.25% credit card handling fee added on by HMRC.

This approach is of course "understandable"; the £4.8 trillion debt built up over the years by our elected representatives needs to be serviced, otherwise there would not be enough money in the kitty to pay our "beloved" MPs and subsidise their bars and restaurants at Westminster.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Tuesday 30 November 2010

OBR Predicts Failure

BS

The Office For Budget Responsibility (OBR) seems to be unimpressed with government/HMRC attempts to close the "tax gap", and government/HMRC bluster about tackling avoidance (perfectly legal) and evasion (illegal).

In short they have dismissed the bluster, and have ignored it.

Page 99 of the OBR November 2010 report states the following:

"Forecasts for tax receipts do not generally include any explicit assumptions about changes in the level of tax compliance. For most taxes, an implicit level of compliance will be reflected in the current level of receipts. In most of the tax models, the current level of receipts will be projected forward using the most appropriate set of economic determinants. Effectively we are assuming that the level of compliance remains constant as a proportion of overall tax revenues. The one
exception is the VAT forecast, where the forecast explicitly projects a VAT gap, the difference between the theoretical tax liability and actual receipts.

HMRC published a document in September on Measuring Tax Gaps 2010 which indicates that the tax gap for HMRC taxes (the difference between tax collected and tax that should be collected) has been close to £40 billion in recent years.a Specific factors such as Missing Trader Intra-Community (MTIC) fraud and a rise in VAT debts during the economic downturn have affected compliance in particular years, but in general the tax gap has been broadly stable. This was achieved against a 2007 HMRC Spending Review settlement of a 4.9 per cent real reduction per year.

The Spending Review 2010 settlement for HMRC included overall resource savings of 15 per cent. This assumed 25 per cent efficiency savings and a £900 million investment to address the tax gap and tackle tax avoidance and evasion. This included measures to increase criminal prosecutions, tackle offshore evasion, extend HMRC’s coverage of high risk areas and the greater use of debt collection agencies.

Inevitably there are always large uncertainties about the effects of both the efficiency savings and additional investment. As a result, we have not included the impact from either factor in the November forecast. If improvements in tax compliance do occur, receipts outturns would come in above what was implied by the economic determinants. At this point they would then be incorporated into the tax forecast. The same would apply in reverse if HMRC savings led to a loss of compliance yield for any tax
."

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Monday 29 November 2010

Gone Phishing II



Earlier this month a loyal reader sent me a link to an article about a potential security flaw within the HMRC website, that may allow phishers to harvest personal information from the unwary user.

It transpires that there is another, similar, security flaw within the HMRC site. Concept Business System explain the issues here.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Friday 26 November 2010

Something For The Weekend

Weekend

A loyal reader writes to me setting the following challenge, I assume it to be tongue in cheek, for other loyal readers:

"I challenge anyone to ring the West Yorkshire & Craven HMRC number (their office is in Nottingham and the phone number is a Lincoln one) and get through in less than 3 days."

I assume it can't really be as bad as that?

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Thursday 25 November 2010

More Cock Ups?

BS

The Telegraph reports that there may be some more cock ups in the tax system, as a result of "issues" in HMRC.

The paper quotes Richard Mannion, a director of Smith & Williamson:

"The first problem concerns HMRC asking for tax repayments to be sent back and the second relates to online requests sent by taxpayers under the self assessment system which seem to have been lost by HMRC’s computer system.

In short, it appears that the tax authorities did not include the employee benefits as shown on forms P11D when working out if people had paid the correct amount of tax for 2009/10 and so under-estimated individuals' tax liabilities. Consequently thousands of people who got a refund just a short while ago could now get a tax demand to the tune of several hundred pounds or more.
"

With regard to the first issue, it is of course correct that if there has been an error wrt the repayment of tax then HMRC should reclaim it. However, human nature being what it is, it is highly likely that any monies paid back to taxpayers will have been spent.

HMRC, quite correctly, point out that this is the way the system works; ie where the benefit is new in 2009/10 the first HMRC knows about it is when the P11D is sent to them by the employer by July 2010. The issue should normally be "coded out" if less than £2K, and therefore no monies will be reclaimed in the form "hard cash".

However, the Telegraph (cynically?) notes that HMRC made similar statements, playing down the scale of its PAYE errors in August, before admitting to the massive scale of the problem.

These "reconciling" errors may well be more numerous than HMRC are admitting.

Mr Mannion then goes on to highlight another issue:

"The second issue concerns online requests for repayment or for the reduction of tax payments on account, sent by taxpayers to HMRC during the six weeks between October 1 and November 15 this year. It appears that any online requests for help of this type have been lost and not acted upon by HRMC.

Although the problem has now been fixed, anyone who falls into this category should get back in touch with HMRC and reissue their request. This applies even though you may have had a receipt from the tax authorities saying they got your request.

There could be thousands of people up and down the country who think they have successfully communicated their request to HMRC but in reality they will just have to do it again
."

HMRC are of the view that this only a affects a few people.

Time, for both of these issues, will tell!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Wednesday 24 November 2010

Whither Kenny? III

Whither Kenny?

Loyal readers will doubtless recall the "resignation" (or was it really sacking?) of Bernadette Kenny (Director General of Personal Tax) that was featured on this site in early November.

Well now, it seems that this story hasn't quite ended yet.

The FT reports that, "oddly enough", Kenny will not be leaving her post empty handed (even though she allegedly "resigned" of her own free will).

Kenny will, as from February 2011, start to draw down her HMRC £50K per annum pension (six years earlier than she would have normally been entitled to - worth an extra £300K to her).

My goodness, what a generous and decent employer HMRC is...if, that is, you are in the upper echelons of HMRC and know where the bodies are buried!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Tuesday 23 November 2010

Service Standards Fall

Fail

The ICAEW has published the results of its survey into its members' views of HMRC's Customer Service Standards (conducted between May and July of this year).

The survey indicates that standards are falling.

Quote:

"We are extremely concerned that overall service standards seem to continue to fall."

Key issues being:

HMRC acknowledges that tax agents are an essential part of the UK tax system. Agents need to be able to communicate with HMRC easily, efficiently and reliably. However, overall service standards have fallen steadily as HMRC continues to seek to reduce its costs and improve its efficiency.

ICAEW questions whether HMRC can meet its aspiration to 'provide an increasingly efficient and high quality service' while reducing staff numbers: the evidence from the ICAEW survey and elsewhere reinforces ICAEW's concerns.

HMRC should concentrate resources on:

- better trained staff
- nominated staff having ownership of problems
- email access to HMRC.

Communication with HMRC is one of the biggest problems for agents. It is difficult to get through on the telephone, the people answering the phones have insufficient knowledge to be able to resolve queries, promised call backs do not happen and letters remain unanswered.

In 2010, 71% (2009, 63%; 2007, 55%) of respondents reported in at least five of the last ten calls to HMRC, they needed to have further contact in order to resolve the enquiry.

In 2010 61% (2009, 50%; 2007, not asked) of respondents felt that the level of
knowledge of HMRC knowledge staff was rarely or never sufficient to answer an enquiry.

34% of VAT queries took longer than three months (2009,21%; 2007, 20%) to receive a full reply.

etc...

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Monday 22 November 2010

There Is Nothing Like a Dame



I see that the Sun reports that those running HMRC do not believe in stinting themselves, even if the country has a £4.8 Trillion debt.

Dame Lesley Strathie (CEO of HMRC) apparently travelled by rail to Darlington (first class) in April, at a cost to the taxpayer of £371.67. On top of this was a taxi fare of £82.25.

Why was she going there in the first place?

Oh, to attend an event "celebrating success"!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Thursday 18 November 2010

Avoidance - Definiton Subject To Political Nuance

BS

Oh dear, don't you just "love" politicians and the way that they twist things to suit their mood?

David Gauke, the Exchequer secretary to the Treasury, gave a speech on Wednesday at the annual ICAEW Hardman Memorial Lecture.

Gauke said that he knew that tax advisers often got frustrated with people conflating legitimate tax planning, avoidance and evasion. However, he said that the government was looking to clamp down on avoidance and would use the "bonfire of the the tax reliefs" (my words, not his) as a means to that end.

He tried to mollify his audience by saying that the government is really only trying to target instances where reliefs and exemptions are used in a "highly artificial way".

He would say that, wouldn't he?

However, as per Accountancy Age:

"There's also times when it's perfectly clear what the law intends - where reliefs and exemptions are then used in a highly artificial way.

In these instances, people use their resources - and their talents - to twist the law and create results that everyone knows are simply too good to be true
."

Dare I say that as the law is made by parliament, theoretically on the basis of advice by HMRC, that it is up to the politicians to create legislation that is clear and not open to being "twisted"?

Sadly, most especially as there is a £4.8 Trillion debt, the law will be interpreted by HMRC and the politicians in the way that suits their purposes best. This is why (despite whining from Gauke et al) taxpayers need tax advisers to use their skills, talents and resources to their very best.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Gone Phishing



My thanks to a loyal reader who sent me a link to an article about a potential security flaw within the HMRC website, that may allow phishers to harvest personal information from the unwary user.

Here is a summary of the issue from Concept Business Systems (who also put together the video above):

Summary:
A potentially dangerous cross site scripting vulnerability has been discovered on Her Majesty's Customs & Excise web site.

Description:
This exploit allows anyone to alter content shown on the HMRC.gov.uk search site.

As we've shown below, it's possible to change any part of the site. If exploited, a fraudster could potentially gain access to user accounts by forwarding a malicious link by email, web forum or chat message. HMRC are a prime target for phishing scams, but success rates are limited for a number of reasons. The main problem fraudsters face is trying to convince their victims that the site (and email) is genuine. Quite often, it's simple grammatical / spelling mistakes which give the game away. Unfortunately, some scams are very well executed and can fool even the most careful users.

All phishing scams are dangerous, but this is no ordinary phishing scam and it stands out for a two reasons.

1. It's a very high profile site.
2. The fraudster no longer needs to clone the site, these changes can be made to the genuine site... thus hiding the scam behind the correct URL (www.hmrc.gov.uk) and giving the user a false sense of security.

In the video below, we've altered the content and replaced it with a message asking the user to login in order to perform a tailored search. This message and the form beneath are fake; created purely to collect your username & password. These details are not sent to HMRC's server and are therefore not covered by their SSL certificate (the padlock symbol). Instead, they are forwarded to an address of the hackers choice.

With phishing scams & identity theft a real cause for concern, this needs to be resolved as a matter of urgency.

If you suspect you've been a victim of such a scam, it's absolutely vital that you change your password as soon as possible, particularly if you're an agent acting on behalf of other clients.

Also, email security.custcon@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

DO NOT disclose any personal details in your email... simply outline the type of information you disclosed and to whom.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Wednesday 17 November 2010

The Trouble With Computers - Keying Errors



My thanks to a loyal reader who has advised me of a problem that his father in law (a pensioner) has experienced with HMRC.

His father in law recently received a hefty demand for underpaid tax on his pension income. He phoned HMRC, and had a conversation with a very helpful officer.

It seems that, on investigation by the officer, the person who entered the figures onto HMRC's computer from the paper return had added the tax deducted to the gross amount of the pension; the liability had then been calculated on that figure.

Now, there may be some who say that this problem could have been avoided if the taxpayer had not used "old fashioned" paper but filed his return online.

Three points to counter this argument:

1 Not everyone is connected to the net, nor computer savvy.

2 People have the right to submit paper returns.

3 The taxpayer, in this particular case, did initially try to file online. However, HMRC's system was not working at the time and so rather than waste any further time he filed a paper return.

The question is, how many other paper returns (especially those of taxpayers who may not be so tax "savvy") have had keying errors such as this which have not been spotted/flagged by the taxpayer?

Computers are only as good as the people who programme them and key in the data.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Tuesday 16 November 2010

A Political F*ck Up!

Political F*ck Up

The Scotsman reports the following wrt money spent by the Scottish executive on a tax system that it has never used:

"MILLIONS of pounds from Scotland's budget were paid to HM Revenue and Customs to set up a tax system which was never used, it has emerged.

As a result of technology changes at HMRC, a Scottish government will have to fork out millions more if it wants to charge a different rate of tax.

The Scottish Parliament has never made use of its powers to vary the basic rate of income tax by 3p in the pound.

Sources say under an agreement which expired in 2007, the previous Scottish Executive paid HMRC £12 million to set up the necessary systems to identify Scottish taxpayers and a further £50,000 a year to maintain the project.

The current Scottish Government did not renew the agreement when it came to power in 2007 because it did not plan to use the powers.

Within the next few weeks, the UK Government is expected to publish the Scotland Bill, implementing proposals by the Calman commission to give Holyrood wider tax powers.

In the meantime, sources say there have been "significant changes to HMRC's IT platforms" which mean the Scottish Government would have to pay for completely new systems to identify Scottish taxpayers
...."

Let's face it, politicians really do know f*ck things up and waste our money!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Monday 15 November 2010

Debt Write Off

Debt Write OffHMRC have confirmed that it will write off the tax debts of 1.9M cases from tax year 2006/7 (approximately £500M).

For why?

HMRC are of the view that it will be unlikely to be able to collect the money owed before April 2011. At this point the tax debt becomes time barred, as tax underpayments have to be reclaimed within 4 years of the relevant tax year.

These debts have arisen because of errors on the PAYE codes.

Citywire reports that Dame Lesley Strathie will formally confirm this at the Commons Public Accounts Committee this week.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Friday 12 November 2010

Pension Problems



It would seem, from the feedback that I have received yesterday about my article on HMRC's bouncing cheques, that some HMRC cheques have indeed bounced.

This of course is a problem that affects some of HMRC's "customers". However, HMRC is an organisation that believes in treating people equally. As such, it should come as no surprise to learn that some of HMRC's staff/ex staff may also be facing money problems caused by an administrative blunder.

A loyal reader (ex HMRC) has informed me of the following:

"I transferred to the Official Receiver's office in November 2007, after working for HMRC since 1999 (Formerly Inland Revenue).

I have, after contacting DWP, discovered that my HMRC pension has disappeared, and that I never contributed to one; yet I had pensionable funds deducted since 1999
."

He has since contacted DWP, and they have confirmed the error lies with HMRC.

How many other staff that have left HMRC experienced this problem?

Maybe those who still work for HMRC should also check their pension pots, to make sure that they are properly accounted for?

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Thursday 11 November 2010

Bouncy Bouncy



My thanks to a loyal reader who advises me that there may be a problem with HMRC bouncing some taxpayers' PAYE repayment cheques.

It seems, if this information is correct, that these cheques have been bounced because there was insufficient funds in the particular HMRC bank account on which they were drawn.

I would be grateful to receive more details about this eg; amounts involved, number of cheques bounced etc.

Thanks.

I assume that, if this is true, then it is most likely due to an administrative error (eg cheques being drawn on the wrong account) rather than a shortage of cash.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Panorama

Those of you who missed Monday night's Panorama programme, "Are You Paying Too Much Tax?", can watch it here:

Panorama

"With millions of people waiting to see if they are winners or losers in the fallout from the recent tax code realignment, Panorama reveals the situation inside HM Revenue and Customs.

Insiders say the much-vaunted new computer system is making a bad situation worse, with billions in tax owed to the revenue having to be written off because of mistakes. Reporter Adam Shaw takes tax experts on the road to check people's tax codes, and hears first-hand from angry tax payers and from whistleblowers inside HMRC who complain that mismanagement, waste and staff shortages mean they're providing a poor service to taxpayers across the country
."

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Wednesday 10 November 2010

The Top 100 Suppliers

Top 100Kable have published a list of HMRC's top 100 suppliers during the financial year 2009/10.

In total HMRC spent £1.8BN on suppliers, of this £0.8BN went on the Aspire IT contract and £0.3BN went to the property company Mapeley (who have been featured on this site before - see tag below).

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Tuesday 9 November 2010

Treasury Inquiry

Inquiry

My thanks to the loyal reader who sent me this link to the Treasury Sub-Committee call for evidence to be submitted to their inquiry into HMRC.

In my view, this is an ideal opportunity for HMRC staff to put their case across and have their voices heard.

Source: Sub-Committe Inquiry Into HMRC
"The operation of HMRC has come under close scrutiny in the last few months as a result of the most recent round of PAYE reconciliations. The Department is subject to a significant efficiency programme and must make further savings as a result of the Comprehensive Spending Review. Looking ahead, the Government has made tax compliance a priority, with funding being made available in the CSR, and recently concluded a consultation on PAYE reform.

The sub-committee’s inquiry will build on its predecessor’s work, which identified areas of concern in relation to the impact of the efficiency programme on HMRC’s performance, staff morale within the organisation and its performance on issues such as the payment of tax credits. Its inquiry will focus on the following questions:

HMRC's performance as an organisation and whether it is delivering its key aims;
What the implications are of HMRC's spending review settlement;
Whether HMRC is able to deliver the Government's aims on tax compliance;
Whether PAYE reform is necessary; and
What HMRC’s priorities should be for the future?

The sub-committee invites written submissions on these and related points. Guidance on how to make a written submission is given below.

Please be aware that the Sub-Committee cannot not investigate individual cases....

NOTES ON SUBMISSION OF WRITTEN EVIDENCE

Written evidence should be in Word or rich text format—not PDF format—and sent by e-mail to treascom@parliament.uk. The body of the e-mail must include a contact name, telephone number and postal address. The e-mail should also make clear who the submission is from. The deadline is 12 noon on Wednesday 17 November 2010. Submissions should be no longer than 3000 words. Submissions should be in the format of a self-contained memorandum. Paragraphs should be numbered for ease of reference, and the document must include an executive summary
...."

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Monday 8 November 2010

Whither Kenny? II

Kenny
My thanks to the loyal reader who sent me a copy (see above) of Leslie Strathie's letter to HMRC staff about the departure of Bernadette Kenny (Director General of Personal Tax).

Stephen Banyard (Director of Business Customer Unit) takes over today, temporarily.

Strathie says that Kenny's full time post will be filled by "a competition" (Pin the tail on the donkey? Musical chairs?). I suspect that her note was written in haste, and that the "a" was a mistake.

Still, you never know:)

In the meantime, it seems that, Kenny will stay on for a "couple of months" to "transform" the department.

If Kenny really had "resigned" why shift her to another role for 2 months, why not simply let her stay in her current role until the term of her notice period expires?

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Friday 5 November 2010

Retrospective Legislation

RumpoleI read with interest the recent article in the Telegraph about Robert Huitson, an IT consultant, who has been landed with a £100K tax bill (others have also received backdated bills) as the result of retrospective changes made to tax legislation.

Mr Huiston set up Isle of Man trusts to avoid British income tax.

The scheme was entirely legal and ran for seven years until Parliament closed the loophole retrospectively in the 2008 Finance Act, and issued backdated demands for millions of pounds.

Changing the law to close "loopholes", and prevent them being used in the future, is one thing. However, retrospectively applying those laws to tax arrangements set up legally and in good faith is contrary to the fundamentals of British law.

David Elvin QC is acting on Mr Huiston's behalf in the Appeal Court and is challenging the retrospective law, on the basis of a breach in human rights for people to be allowed to have "free enjoyment" of their private property.

"The degree of retrospectivity is unprecedented in the history of tax legislation and imposes an individual and excessive burden on users of the (tax avoidance) arrangement."

It will be very interesting to see how this case progresses.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"