AA's To Get 4%+ Pay Rise?

As per a loyal reader:

"Intranet reply from Jon Thompson in his blog :..."We are upping the AA pay by at least 4% this coming year"

Why you may ask ??

Because the pay is so low in HMRC that the department is forced to pay an in-year increase to AA grade staff just to meet the same national minimum wage it is the department’s job to enforce."

Is this for real?

I can't find an outside source?

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"

HMRC's Focus on Avoidance Rubbished In Finance Sub Committee

Kudos to the Lords Finance Sub Committee for nailing a few issues!

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"

Tribunal Rules Against HMRC - No Valid Determination of Penalties by HMRC

HMRC lost a First Tier Tribunal in September because they couldn't prove that a series of fines were issued by a real live HMRC officer!

ICPA reports that recruitment business Expion Silverstone Ltd, had filed late returns for the first three quarters of the 2016-17 financial year. Consequently, HMRC issued the company with three penalty assessments, all on 19^th April 2017, for £250, £500 and £1,000.

S.100(1) Taxes Management Act 1970 states that an officer of the Board [HMRC] may make a penalty determination, and the onus of proof lay with HMRC to justify the imposition of the penalties.

The only evidence HMRC put forward was a computer printout. This was insufficient, as the Revenue did not constitute an officer, nor a real officer at that. The Tribunal therefore issued directions to HMRC requiring them to provide the following evidence:

1. name of the officer who made the penalty determination;
2. details and evidence of how and when that officer made the determination;
3. the process by which the HMRC computer was then instructed to send notification to Expion Silverstone Ltd; and
4. how the determinations were subsequently recorded on Expion’s computer records.

After being granted an extension of time by the Tribunal to comply with the direction, after two months all the Revenue could offer was:

“Although HMRC has been granted a time extension it is still not possible to provide a detailed response to these directions. These penalties were automatically issued by HMRC’s computer systems therefore we cannot provide a named person in respect of individual cases. 

The computer recorded the penalties and issued penalty notices on 19/04/2017 in accordance with HMRC’s policy in respect of late filing of Employment Intermediary returns.”

Why did HMRC take two months to come up with an answer that was obvious to all from the beginning?

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"

HMRC Gagging For New Powers

The Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT) is of the view that HMRC has not made a strong enough case to either remove safeguards on his third-party data requests or to extend hefty daily penalties to many more cases.

Currently, before HMRC can issue a notice to a third-party for material it deems ‘reasonably required’ for its enquiries, it must get taxpayer or tribunal permission.

However, in a HMRC consultation on its civil information powers, the department says it is concerned at the length of time it can take to obtain approval from a tribunal.

HMRC believes that a radical solution would be to remove altogether the requirement for either tribunal or taxpayer-approval before a third-party notice is issued.

ATT is quoted by Contractor UK:

“We do not believe that HMRC have provided sufficient evidence to justify the erosion of important safeguards for both taxpayers and third parties.

The safeguards were] introduced for two reasons -- to protect the privacy of taxpayers and to prevent undue burdens being imposed on third parties.”

Not content with removing safeguards, HMRC also wants to extend tribunal-determined penalties -- of up to £1,000 a day – to every type of information notice that taxpayers and third parties can be issued with.


Who in theri right mid would trust HMRC with these additional powers/fines?

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"

HMRC Dishonours Negotiated Agreement

My thanks to the loyal reader who posted this behind the scenes account of how HMRC screw up and dishonour negotiations:

"At a meeting a few weeks ago, the senior HMRC staff who have been engaged in a FIVE YEAR negotiation with a major multinational were being beaten up by the CEO and CFO to explain why a deal everybody (foreign tax authorities included) had been happy with 3 months ago was now a non runner.

All they did was to mumble about "Governance Procedures" and look deeply miserable.

As far as we could make out, it had gone up the food chain and a summary been served cold to beings unfamiliar with the history and complexities.

And one or more of them had bellowed "I like it not!!!" because despite offering a large net cash gain for the UK Treasury over the coming years, a large current year offset and smaller repayment in respect of prior years would result.

So off to Litigation it is. HMRC will lose because their original stance was based on a near complete misunderstanding of the facts and a refusal to listen."

This is not the way to handle things!

See you in four or five years.

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"

HMRC's Great British Bake - Off!

Patisserie Valerie, having suspended its shares over a potential fraud, has also warned investors of an HMRC winding up petition it faces over £1.14m in unpaid tax.

HMRC said Patisserie Holding’s principal trading subsidiary, Stonebeach, owes it the money, and has set a hearing date of 31 October to seek a court order to liquidate the firm and its assets.

HMRC advertised the petition last Friday. However, rather oddly, Patisserie’s board said it has only "become aware” of it yesterday.

City AM quotes the stock market update:

“The company and its advisers are in communication with HMRC with the objective of addressing the petition.


The company continues to engage with its professional advisers to understand better the financial position of the group and will make further announcements in due course.”

This does not bode well for Pat Val!

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"