HMRC are becoming a little too full of themselves these days.
John Cassidy, PKF Accountants tax investigations partner, has stated on Director of Finance Online that HMRC has little regard for the central tenets of the English legal system, by presuming taxpayers are guilty.
He cites the recent spewing forth from the HMRC bunker of 5000 letters to offshore account holders, demanding an explanation on funds "about which it knows little".
Quote:
"In many cases, HMRC only knows that someone has an offshore bank account and the funds it contains at a few specific dates.
It has little idea how much interest was earned on the deposits, where the money came from or the key question of whether there is an undeclared UK tax liability at all.
Legally, to issue an assessment for unpaid tax, HMRC must have made a discovery or, in other words, have actual knowledge that further tax is due, not just that it might be due. Yet the threat is that such assessments will definitely be issued unless informal, voluntary answers are given to the questions raised."
HMRC should remember that no one, and no organisation, is above the law.
Tax does have to be taxing.
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I have found they make wild assumptions on no basis whatever.
ReplyDeleteIf they think you might owe the odd k they just add up every expense in the accounts, even when you have already provided evidence that most are valid or are already taxed as a BIK, and call it an assessment.