Thursday 31 October 2013

D Day

Today is deadline day for getting your paper self assessment tax returns in for tax year ended 2013.

Miss the deadline and you may be fined, even if you have no tax to pay.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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 30 October 2013

Tax Coding Errors

Incorrect tax codes mean that over one in three taxpayers who receive employment benefits in kind could be in danger of paying the wrong amount of tax, according to UHY Hacker Young.

The firm's analysis of tax codes sent to clients revealed that around 37% would have resulted in people paying the incorrect amount of tax.

Whilst it is up to the individual taxpayer to check his/her tax code and statement, human nature and the fact that most people are clueless about how the tax system works means that many people take their tax codes and statements at face value. This in turn results in over/underpayments of tax.

Roy Maugham, Partner at UHY Hacker Young's London office, said:
Mistakes most frequently occur when someone has several sources of income, for example income from an investment as well as a salary and benefits from their employer, or where they have received a large one-off sum such as a dividend payment.

HMRC really needs to make more of an effort to eliminate these errors as generally people trust its calculations and assume that they are paying the correct amount of tax.

If taxpayers do spot a mistake, it is now an even bigger headache to sort out because HMRC has made it harder to challenge unfair tax bills.”
One UHY Hacker Young office saw errors for 20 different taxpayers in just one week relating to benefits provided by employers, such as company cars and private health cover (usually set out on a P11D form).

In most of these cases the code sent by HMRC completely omitted to account for the tax due on the benefits.

The lesson being, check your tax code and tax bill!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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 29 October 2013

Gauke Backs Tax Avoidance

My thanks to a loyal reader who sent me a link to an HMRC/HMT document entitled "Reducing Tax Evasion and Avoidance" (updated 8 October 2013), signed off by David Gauke.

The final paragraph states:
"Tax avoidance means using whatever legal means possible to reduce the amount of money that a company or individual pays in taxes."
In other words David Gauke, HMRC and HMT have no problem with tax avoidance.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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 25 October 2013

IR35 Feedback

IT contractors are being invited by HMRC to comment and provide feedback on the new system for IR35 that went live in 2012.

For why?

It seems, according to Contractor UK, that there have been teething problems with the rule's administrative reforms that were introduced.

A framework paper exists for guiding responses, and can be accessed/read in context from the IR35 Forum Minutes (the meeting was held on 1 August 2013. However, it is not clear as to when the forum minutes were actually published).

Good luck!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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 24 October 2013

Taxpayers Are Not Customers!

My thanks to a loyal reader who sent me an article that contains a most marvellous quote by judge Barbara Mosedale, who found that HMRC’s decision wrt taxpayers filing VAT returns online was a breach of the appellants’ human rights and unlawful under EU law.

The judge is quoted by Finance and Tax Tribunals:
"I note in passing that all the reports mentioned below refer to HMRC’s ‘customers’. 

While this is a regrettable misuse of language by HMRC as it implies people have a choice whether to interact with HMRC and that therefore the payment of taxes is voluntary, nevertheless it is clear that references to ‘customers’ are meant to be references to taxpayers. 

Needless to say the payment of taxes is not voluntary despite the misnomer and the submission of VAT returns by VAT registered entities is a legal requirement."
Quite so!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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 23 October 2013

HMRC Not "Particularly Feeble"

Margaret Hodge, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, was recently quoted in the Independent as saying that:
 “It is a persistent finding of my Committee that HMRC is nowhere near tough enough in cracking down on avoidance and closing loopholes. In this case they appear to have been particularly feeble.”
The specific case that she was referring to relates to a tax exemption relating to certain high interest loans, whereby the interest element is used to reduce corporation tax. This allowance or "loophole" (as per Ms Hodge) was established in the 1980's, in order to make Britain more internationally competitive.

It is estimated that this may cost the government around £500M per annum and, as such, there has been pressure to end the allowance/close the "loophole".

However, as a result of lobbying the government has chosen to continue to allow the exemption/"loophole" to remain.

Make of that what you will.

However, to call HMRC "feeble" over a government decision is simply wrong and misleading!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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 22 October 2013

HMRC To Act As Judge and Jury?

In August HMRC published a consultation document "Raising The Stakes on Tax Avoidance" that made proposals on two avoidance issues:
"The first proposes a new set of obligations for high-risk promoters, their intermediaries and users. 

The second is to encourage users of avoidance schemes to settle their tax affairs after similar cases have lost in court or tribunal. 

The Government also seeks views on a proposed extension to the prescribed information to be provided under the Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Schemes (DOTAS) rules."
The consultation closed on 4th October.

The ICAEW Tax Faculty has published its concerns that the proposals are not sufficiently targeted, and would impose substantial extra compliance burdens and costs on tax advisers who are not themselves engaged in promoting dubious tax schemes.

Specifically the Tax Faculty states:
"We are concerned that the proposals as currently suggested may be too widely targeted and will result in substantial extra compliance burdens and costs imposed on tax advisers who are not engaged in promoting dubious tax schemes. The danger then is that the proposals will not succeed. 

The 20 or so promoters at whom the measures are aimed continue to operate in exactly the same way as they do now but considerable extra compliance costs have been imposed on everyone else to no useful purpose. If action is to be taken against high-risk promoters then before any individual or firm is designated as such we believe that there should be a system of independent review of the relevant HMRC proposal similar to the Advisory Panel under the recently introduced General Anti-Abuse Rule (GAAR). 

It is not acceptable for HMRC to act as judge and jury in what is a highly sensitive area, particularly given that the measures appear to be too widely targeted."

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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 21 October 2013

RTI - Cows Come First!

Now here's an interesting report from PayrollWorld.

Seemingly of those involved in HMRC's RTI pilot, 111 of 446 (25%) employers surveyed by HMRC found that reporting end of year returns now took more time than it did before they did it in real time

More than two thirds (69%) of the employers surveyed said RTI made no difference to payroll costs, but the use of commercial software led to extra up-front costs for 47%.

One farm payroller said: 
If a cow goes into labour and the payroll is due, the cow comes first. We pay HMRC late. It’s only ever by a day or two and not something we intend. But that is difficult to do now.
Please can someone provide me with a link to the actual report on the HMRC site, it must be Monday morning or something I can't seem to find it?

Thanks.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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 18 October 2013

Online Shutdown Back On

HMRC's postponed online shutdown is now back on.

HMRC services will close between 2000 on Friday October 18 and 1500 on Saturday October 19.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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 16 October 2013

Gauke Speaks

As per PayeRti.org:
"David Gauke MP: "I am pleased that RTI ... is also performing a vital role by reducing fraud and error in the Universal Credit system."
Comments and views are more than welcome!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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 14 October 2013

Online Shutdown Postponed

On 2nd October I wrote the following:
"HMRC have announced that their regular Autumn closure of their online services will occur between 06:00 on Friday 11 October 2013 and 06:00 on Monday 14 October 2013."
Seemingly 'twas but a false alarm.

The shutdown has been postponed after discovering more work was required than planned. After running tests to establish what work was needed, HMRC found it would have missed its Monday deadline to return the system to working order.

An HMRC spokesman is quoted in last week's Accountancyage:
"Whenever we undertake maintenance work we run rigorous tests beforehand.

These checks were completed last night and we discovered that there was a problem and that part of the upgrade wouldn't have been complete by Monday morning as previously announced.

This means that all our services will be running normally this weekend and we are working to choose a new date and approach that has the least impact on our customers."
Any guesses as to when the new shutdown will occur?

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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 11 October 2013

Don't Get Off Your Backsides Yet!

Oh dear it seems that, despite Lin Homer's pleas, approximately 165,000 people did not get "off their backsides" and have missed a deadline to register with HMRC over the collection of child benefit.

The BBC quote a spokesman for HMRC:
"On past experience we expect more people to register in the coming days. Although we are past the deadline, people should still register for self-assessment to minimise any penalties they may face."
The penalty may be between 10% and 100% of the child benefit paid, in addition to refunding the appropriate amount.

However, in reality and despite the "off your backsides" warning, it is expected that anyone who signs up and pays the tax due by 31 January will not receive a penalty.


Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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 10 October 2013

The Joy of Fags



The BBC reports that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has claimed that the UK economy lost £1.9bn a year through tobacco smuggling, equal to 20% of all tax collected on cigarettes.

Seemingly some tobacco firms oversupply other European countries, and the surplus then enters the UK tax-free.

However, PAC also claim that HMRC was "in the dark" about how effective its enforcement strategy was even though HMRC says that it has more than halved the size of the illicit market in cigarettes.

Given this "variance" in opinions as to what the true figures are, who are we to really believe?

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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 9 October 2013

What Does RTI Stand For?

My thanks to a loyal reader who observed that Lin Homer referred to HMRC's flagship RTI (Real Time Information) as "Real Time Income":
"Lin Homer has been interviewed by Jeremy Vine, on his BBC Radio 2 programme at lunchtime today (about one hour and 10 minutes into the programme on BBC iPlayer) and referred to RTI as "Real Time Income".Ooops!You'd think the inventors' could get it right on national radio, wouldn't you"
Oops indeed!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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 7 October 2013

Get Off Your Backsides!

I see that Lin Homer recently told people who had not registered for self assessment in respect of the changes in child benefit rules to "get off their backsides" and do so by 5th October (last Saturday).

As per the Telegraph:
As it turned out a lot of the people affected have either opted out, over 350,000, or have already opted out, or were already in self-assessment, over 425,000. 
And since we started out advertising another 130,000 have joined. So we think there is about 200,000 people who still need to get off their backsides and do something.

For those people who have not taken action yet … please register for self-assessment. If it proves not to be necessary we can always take you out. 
What we don’t want people is face penalties just because they have been inactive.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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 4 October 2013

CIOT RTI Survey

In August I noted that HMRC had launched an online survey to find out how difficult the ‘on or before’ rule for reporting PAYE in real time is proving for tax agents and employers. The ‘on or before’ rule requires employers to report PAYE on or before the date of payment to their employees.

The results of the survey will be used by HMRC to help them assess the impact of RTI reporting deadlines, and to determine what changes are needed.

The survey closed on Friday the 20 September, having originally planned to close on 13 September.

By happenstance the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) also set up their own survey:
"..to supplement the HMRC survey reviewing the use of the relaxation in 'On Or Before' (OOB) reporting by providing an additional comment section through which members can explain the reasons for OOB problems and any suggestions for how to resolve these. 

We want to identify what, if any, obstacles there are to reporting payments on or before they are made to employees and what, if any, permanent arrangement should be sought."
The survey contains five questions and, although there is no apparent deadline, appears to be still running but maybe for not much longer.

You can complete the survey via this link.


Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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 3 October 2013

Erroneous Penalty Notice


Accountingweb has an interesting query from one of its readers, in relation to an incorrectly issued £100 late filing penalty notice:
"We submitted a 2011/12 tax return on line 15/06/12 and obtained all the usual acknowledgements. This morning I received a £100 penalty notice for failing to send it on time. 
 
On query it turns out that it has now been cancelled but no explanation was forthcoming. 

I thought these were sent by the computer so forget human error but still the query Why??"
Given that the issuance of the penalty notice would have been automatic where the system determined that the submission was late, but given that the submission was made online and evidently (because the penalty was cancelled) on time does anyone have any thoughts as to why/how the system could have issued an automatic penalty incorrectly?


Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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 2 October 2013

HMRC Online Closure

HMRC have announced that their regular Autumn closure of their online services will occur between 06:00 on Friday 11 October 2013 and 06:00 on Monday 14 October 2013.

The ICAEW Tax Faculty note that if you use commercial software, you will still be able to submit returns. However, you will experience a delay before receiving your online acknowledgements until Sunday 13 October.

The acknowledgement will be sent once the service is restored, and you are asked not to attempt to resend your submission.

For some taxes, if you create a direct debit mandate between 20:15 on Wednesday 9 October and 06:00 on Friday 11 October, you will not be able to view the details until 07:30 on Monday 14 October.

Details are available on HMRC’s website.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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 1 October 2013

Disputed PAYE Charges

On 26 September 2013 HMRC published a report into the findings from an analysis of disputed pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) charges associated with RTI reporting:
"We had received feedback that some PAYE schemes have experienced difficulties in reconciling the difference between the tax we say is due, and the tax they think is due."
HMRC set up a dedicated team to identify the cause of the discrepancies.
"It is clear from the analysis that it would be helpful to increase knowledge of how the employer charge is created - both internally in HMRC and externally with our customers and their agents.

Some customers did not understand how HMRC calculated the employer charge, and within HMRC, that lack of detailed knowledge by some contact centre advisors affected responses to customer contact and our handing of referred disputed charges. This meant that some employers were led to believe that their liability and payment had been calculated incorrectly, and so cases were referred incorrectly for review.

Work on developing that knowledge is now underway and we will publish enhanced guidance shortly."
The report goes on to note:
"the number of charges being queried with our specialist team is only a small proportion (less than 1%) of 1.6 million RTI-reporting PAYE schemes......

We have found that the majority of discrepancies have been due to misunderstanding, error or transitional issues as employers joined RTI, and there is no evidence of error in the way that HMRC’s IT systems create the charge. We recommend that employers and payroll service providers check HMRC’s guidance or liaise with t heir payroll software provider where they are unsure. "
Specifically the team found:
• No evidence that HMRC IT systems are calculating the charge incorrectly.
• That there have been some problems associated with the transition to RTI with:
 - Information which has resulted in duplicate employments (resulting in an overstated charge)
 - A small number of submitted FPS’s not being passed to the accounting system in a timely manner resulting in no charge being created, or an understated charge.
• Key causes of discrepancies were:
 - Miscellaneous employer error o Employer Payment Summary (EPS) returns
 - Payments to leavers
 - Timing of updates to HMRC’s Business Tax dashboard (the View Account facility in the PAYE Online account)
 - Issues relating to returns for Construction Industry Schemes
• While not a dispute with the amount of the charge itself, the following have featured in several cases reviewed:
 - The way payments are allocated to debts
 - The information displayed to the employer in the Business Tax dashboard
 - Misunderstanding how employer charge is calculated

HMRC will continue to monitor cases where it is unable to reconcile the amount of PAYE due with taxpayers, and will publish new guidance on how the employer charge is calculated.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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"