Thursday 30 September 2010

20,000 KPIs

KPIsSilicon.com recently published an interesting article about HMRC's plans to save £1BN in outsourced IT costs, as outlined by HMRC's Mark Hall (who oversees Aspire - Acquiring Strategic Partners for the Inland Revenue).

The majority of HMRC's IT services are provided by Capgemini for £750M per annum.

The article highlights some "large" numbers:

- over 600 computer systems (targeted to be reduced to 13),
- 8,000 servers,
- 80,000 desktop PCs,
- 7,500 laptops

Since 2004, when Capgemini was awarded the Aspire contract, HMRC has made IT savings of £152M. Its target is to save £1.2BN by 2017.

My jaw dropped open when I read that there are 20,000 key performance indicators (KPIs) involved in the process.

One hell of a task, by anyone's standards!

Kudos to HMRC if they succeed with this.

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 29 September 2010

Fraud Probe

Fraud
In August I wrote about the seven HMRC staff members from Belfast, who were sacked for collusive racial misconduct wrt tampering with records resulting in minority ethnic claimants being underpaid child benefit.

It appears that, just as the HMRC systems are open to abuse by certain employees who seek to underpay certain benefits, the systems may be open to abuse by certain staff who seek to overpay claims.

The Lancashire Evening Post reports:

"Investigators are probing an alleged fraud with links to tax offices in Preston.

A former Inland Revenue worker is believed to be among 24 people summonsed to appear in court in connection with an alleged conspiracy.

Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs is remaining tight-lipped about the finer details of the case, but one of the defendants told the Evening Post the allegations centred around the overpayment of tax credits...

A spokesman for HMRC said: 'Twenty four individuals were summonsed to appear at Liverpool Magistrates Court to answer charges of conspiracy to contravene Section 35 of the Tax Credits Act 2002 on May 20 2010. HMRC can confirm that one those persons is a former member of HMRC staff. The case was committed to Crown Court for trial.
'.."

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 28 September 2010

Debt Collection Issues

DebtIn June I wrote:

"A loyal reader (who runs a small business) advises me that last week he got a letter from HMRC claiming that he had missed PAYE and NIC payments for the period 6th April to 5th May 2010.

Fair enough, except that he pays these quarterly and the amounts were not yet due for that particularly quarter.

On calling HMRC using the number given on the letter he was told 'it's because of the new penalty rules, this letter has gone out to all quarterly payers'
.."

It seems that there are still issues wrt HMRC chasing up payments that are not yet due.

Accountancy Age report that Alan Boby, tax partner at Ellacotts, has highlighted the same issue with one of his clients who pays PAYE and national insurance on a quarterly basis.

The client had been contacted by HMRC's debt collection division on 15 September, a month before their latest quarterly payment of around £700, which is not due until 19 October.

When Ellacotts approached HMRC on their client's behalf, they were told that demands for unpaid PAYE and national insurance for July and August 2010 had gone out and the client had been wrongly caught up in the trawl.

Boby claims that there have been other cases, which have led to HMRC issuing internal instructions to their offices informing them that demands had been made by mistake for monthly PAYE to employers who only needed to pay quarterly.

HMRC are quoted:

"HMRC does not recognise the scenario described.

We can confirm that no current PAYE debts whatsoever have been placed with
debt collection agencies
."

Feel free to comment if you have received a demand for a payment not yet due to HMRC from a debt collection agency.

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 27 September 2010

Wild Overestimate

BS
Accounting Web have published an interview with Mike Warburton, Tax Director at Grant Thornton.

It is worth reading, ao he notes that:

- Government estimates of there being a further £7BN that can be collected from tax evaders as "a wild overestimate of the actual situation".

- "The root problem is that successive governments have created a tax system that is too complicated. The volume of tax legislation doubled under the previous government and that's a big legacy to live with. HMRC and accountants are having to cope with this".

- "Evasion and avoidance are two entirely different things: One is legal and one is not. The last government said there was 'acceptable avoidance' and 'unacceptable avoidance' and then used this idea of 'unacceptable avoidance' to treat avoidance and evasion as if they were one and the same, but they're not".

As to whether the government will listen to tax professionals and the staff of HMRC, or is indeed able to tackle the problems left behind by the last administration (eg re complexity of legalisation), only time 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"

Friday 24 September 2010

Tax Credit Complaints Increase

ComplaintsThe Adjudicator's Office (which, a.o., deals with complaints about HMRC's service) has issued a report (for the period year ended 31 March 2010) that notes that the number of complaints cases, where HMRC's decision has negatively affected vulnerable groups of people, has increased in recent years.

Accounting Web quote Judy Clements (the Adjudicator):

"In recent years we have seen a growth in cases where HMRC's decision making has had an adverse impact on vulnerable groups of people, for example pensioners facing unexpected tax bills."

The Adjudicator's report (page 12) states:

"HMRC Tax Credits continue to be a significant proportion of our workload (67% of cases resolved were about this area of work).

During 2009-10 we received 1,231 new Tax Credit complaints. We resolved 1,239 Tax Credit complaints in total, upholding 57% either partially or substantially
."

Maybe the concept of tax credits itself makes them such a "moving target" (people's personal circumstances change etc) that administering them without foul ups is almost impossible?

Is it time, perhaps, to rethink the entire approach to helping people who are in financial difficulties?

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 23 September 2010

The £1.5BN Write Off

Write OffThe media report that HMRC has a backlog of approximately 7.5m tax cases that, because they date back to 2007/8 (pre new IT system), are being dealt with manually.

Within the backlog are underpayments of approximately £2BN.

Exchequer Secretary, David Gauke, was very clear recently in Parliament stating that:

"Being left with the worst deficit in peacetime history means we simply cannot afford to write off all of these underpayments."

As ever with politicians, words and reality do not always match.

The fundamental issue facing HMRC is that they have to perform a cost benefit analysis to determine as to whether their resources (time, manpower and money) that they will need to use to chase up these debts will be actually "adding value" in recovering this debt.

In simple terms, will the debt recovered exceed the costs of actually recovering it?

Given the age of some of the debt taxpayers could mount a legal challenge against any recovery effort by HMRC, which in turn would cost HMRC (wrt time, effort and legal fees) were HMRC to stand its ground.

Like it or not, whatever the politicians and shouty media say, this is a simple matter of weighing up costs vs returns.

The BBC have quoted an unnamed HMRC employee:

"For each underpayment there are thousands of pounds owed. Underpayments are very frustrating.

If we had the chance to sort it out three years ago we could have recovered the money. It is now likely to be written off if it's over two years – we're not looking at underpayments beyond two years.

Our directors are telling people that [those who owe tax] will appeal and fight it and this will generate more work
."

The BBC report estimates a write off of around £1.5BN.

Whilst it is quite correct to argue that HMRC should not have found itself in this situation, it is not correct for the politicians (who have totally "buggered" HMRC up over the years) and shouty media to start moaning at HMRC for making a perfectly correct financial assessment that if the costs of recovery exceed the returns then the debt should be written off.

Financial reality and politicians' soundbites do not always match.

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 September 2010

Delays

The Dead Hand of BureaucracyMy commiserations to the loyal reader who sent me this note (edited) yesterday, re problems that he has been having obtaining a tax refund:

"I have been waiting for a tax refund of £XXXX since I received a letter in June stating that the refund would be in my bank account 'in the next few days'.

I waited four weeks, as stated on the message when you ring to enquire, after this 4 weeks I was told that HMRC had put the wrong details on the cheque they had sent to the bank.

HMRC then said they would have to re-issue it which would take 3 weeks... that was in July, it is now coming up to October and still nothing they can tell me.

This has cost me a house as the money was for a deposit I was supposed to put down in July, and now I am faced with the prospect of cancelling a holiday I had booked and paid for, rather stupidly thinking that surely they would have paid me by October?

This is making my life a misery, and probably is for many thousands of other people who live under the rule of this god-awful system. They cause such hardship in people's lives, and there is absolutely no recourse whatsoever.
"

I believe that he is considering making contact with Panorama about this issue.

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 September 2010

Liar Liar!

Liar Liar
There seems to be some confusion as to whether HMRC are intending to introduce telephone "lie detectors" (voice risk analysis - VRA) as developed/marketed by Crapita.

The Telegraph reported that VRA, which alerts investigators when a caller claiming benefits sounds nervous, could be used to identify those seeking to mislead tax inspectors.

However, The Register reports that an HMRC spokesman insisted that the reports were "nonsense" and that there are no plans to use VRA in the tax system.

Now, of course, "no plans" can always change in the future:)

However, I would note that many people calling HMRC feel stressed and a tad nervous. I would also note this salient point from The Register's article:

"a 2007 study in the International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law, which said that VRA vendors' claims amounted to 'charlatanry'.

'Our review of scientific studies will show that these machines perform at chance level,' the authors, two language science professors, wrote.

'No qualified speech scientist believes in this nonsense,' they concluded.

Nemesysco, the Israeli software company behind Capita's product, threatened to sue the journal for libel, so it withdrew the paper. It is still available online.
"

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 20 September 2010

A Pig's Breakfast II

Pig's Breakfast
I recall reading in The Times this weekend that HMRC's plans for a real time (centralised) PAYE system have been "dropped".

HMRC, apparently, claim that this is not a change but something to do with people not really understanding what they were proposing in the first place.

I would like to provide more details on this. However, I threw the paper away and the Times site is now PAYE for access.

Googling has provided me with nothing on this.

Please can someone confirm as to whether the gist of the above is correct?

In the event I am in fact way off beam, and have been imagining what I believe I read in the Times, then I will correct the above.

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 17 September 2010

LOL

"An HMRC spokeswoman told me there "was no IT problem" sending it out but instead a "technical problem" affecting the first batch of a thousand or so emails, which were resent on the day. Please don't ask me what that means."

Source Kevin Reed Accountancy Age

LOL!

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 September 2010

Hartnett Speaks II - HMRC Backs Down

Dave Hartnett
Oh dear it has been a "testing" few days from those "running" HMRC, hasn't it?

"Dame" Lesley Strathie (will someone please tell me why this person has been "Damed"?) and Dave Hartnett had to appear before the Treasury Select Committee yesterday for some ritual humiliation.

As a result of this, and Treasury orders, HMRC have now done a U turn and said that interest will not be charged on the tax underpayments caused by HMRC coding cock ups over the last two years.

Dame Lesley said:

"If they need time to pay, they won't pay interest. Ministers have asked us to put that in place."

As long as people facing a repayment contact HMRC to agree a timetable, no interest will be incurred.

Andrew Tyrie, the committee chairman, said:

"The fact that you have announced this today does look like a direct response to public pressure."

Quite!

Interestingly HMRC's upper echelons were told about the latest underpayments in July, yet the public only informed last week.

Funny though that the policy reversal re interest has only been cobbled together now, in the face of widespread ridicule and condemnation?

One would have thought that HMRC executives could have foreseen all of this, and had a plan in place to avoid the shambles that has been unfolding before our eyes over the last few days?

Hartnett said that he regretted his "insensitivity" in not recognising immediately that people affected deserved an apology. He went on to apologise for not apologising immediately the issue became public.

"I know how to apologise, I've had to do it before.

(Ken's reaction...ROFLOL!)

I did not do it then and I am sorry for that.

I think we could have done better in helping taxpayers to prepare for this
."

Hartnett also apologised for how he handled the BBC Moneybox interview.

(Quotes sourced from The Telegraph)

The sad thing is that this is but the tip of the iceberg; other things will come out and, like a West End farce, this farce will run and run.

BTW, where's "Three days a Week" Clasper gone?

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 September 2010

Survey Time II


I see, from the comments made on yesterday's article about HMRC's staff survey, that the HMRC staff survey did indeed commence on Monday 13th.

However, as has been pointed, out it covers the entire civil service; ie HMRC have no choice but to run it.

What is interesting/amusing from the comments made thus far are the following:

1 It had to be delayed for 24 hours, owing to some from of IT glitch that required an overnight fix.

2 HMRC have started their survey early, because it is being dealt with "in house". What does that mean I wonder?

Any bets as to whether it will be better or worse than last year's survey, the results of which were leaked?

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 September 2010

Survey Time!

Dilbert
I see that Hartnett has failed to be given explicit support from the government, after the weekend's fiasco, and will most likley be called before the Treasury select committee foor a "wee chat".

That aside, am I right in thinking that yesterday (the 13th) was the day on which HMRC started their 2010 staff survey?

Can someone verify that please?

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"

Monday 13 September 2010

Hartnett Speaks

Dave Hartnett
Dave Hartnett, HMRC's permanent secretary for tax, managed to put his foot in his mouth over the weekend.

He kicked off by refusing to apologise for the oncoming storm of extra demands for tax from HMRC, resulting from their well publicised cock up over tax over/underpayments that affect between 6-10 million people.

Hartnett denied there had been any errors, and said he saw no need to apologise.

The Guardian quoted him from BBC Radio 4's Money Box programme:

"I'm not sure I see a need to apologise.

I've read the papers, listened to the media and heard stories of HMRC blunder and IT failure – neither of those are true.

Every country that I know of that has deduction of tax from wages and salaries has to do a reconciliation at the end of each year and we're doing one.

I don't think we are extraordinary. Once or twice in the past the numbers have been very large – sometimes they're less. It depends on how the system has been operated and what issues there have been. We didn't get it wrong. This needs to be reconciled.

We're going to be as sympathetic as we can to anyone who comes to us and says you're trying to take too much money too fast.

If the results of the exercise we're now engaged in show that there are aspects of our plans which are not going to work well for the work we're trying to do or for our customers, we will consider changing them.

I am addressing the issue and I think the nation needs me to do just that.
"

Tory MP Ian Liddell-Grainger, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on taxation, thought that Hartnett was talking bollocks wrt the claim that the repayment demands were not due to any "mistake" by the authorities.

Warnings had been ignored for years that the system was not "up to it", he said – accusing Hartnett of showing the typical "arrogance" of senior civil servants.

"It is a mistake. We have been warning for a long time that structurally this is not up to it. It comes down to a 21st century computer system and a 1940s PAYE system."

(Source Telegraph)

I would point out that in the real world Dave those who have, through no fault of their own, underpaid tax (because they assumed that HMRC had got the figures right) will have spent the money on "luxuries" such as food, rent and heating.

Anyhoo, a few hours is a long time in farces.

Within hours of refusing to apologise Hartnett, having been subjected to a barrage of criticism from taxpayers and MPs (George Osborne, the Chancellor, was said to have been incandescent, Lord Oakeshott said Hartnett's response made the BP chief, Tony Hayward, "look like a model of disaster management" adding that Hartnett was "in a world of his own; I wonder what planet he is on? This is the latest in a series of management failures in the HMRC going back many years. If Mr Hartnett cannot see why he should apologise for this one, then he really should be reconsidering his own position."), issued an apology.

He said that he was "deeply sorry that people are facing an unexpected bill.

Everyone in HMRC is working hard to make this as painless as possible.

I apologise if my remarks came across as insensitive. I am working flat out with my colleagues to ensure everyone's tax is correct and the new computer system will help us do this.

It was this new system that revealed the extent and size of reconciliations required – and will help us be more accurate in future – but we do not underestimate the distress caused to taxpayers and, once again, I apologise.
".

(Source The Independent)

As to whether Hartnett really meant it, or was merely acting under orders is another matter.

As to why Hartnett (when he was head of the IR inquiry branch he was personally responsible for leading the HMRC investigation into Ken Dodd's tax affairs in the 1980's - you will recall HMRC lost that one when it went to court), Clasper (who works 2 days a week for HMRC) and "Dame" Strathie (and other senior executives of HMRC) are still in their jobs is something that our "beloved" political masters can answer (but probably won't).

Were these people to be removed/step down, their replacements would doubtless be highly skilled in political spin but lacking the necessary management skills/experience to turn HMRC around.

Frankly speaking it is my belief that, in its current form, HMRC is beyond redemption.

My advice is to undo the merger of IR and Customs, take away responsibility for administering tax credits (or simply replace them with a higher rate personal allowance) then work from there to massively simplify the tax system.

(Factoid: the donkey in the picture is called Dilbert - my thanks to the loyal reader who sent me Dilbert's photo and gave me permission to use it - Dilbert wishes to make it clear than any physical resemblance to Hartnett is an unfortunate coincidence).

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 10 September 2010

Melting Point


The BBC have broadcast and interview on Radio 4's Today with a serving tax inspector at HMRC (he has spent 10 years there).

Quote:

"HMRC hasn't been fit for purpose for a very long time.

It's is now at melting point.

We don't have the staff we need, we don't have the resources we need and the computer systems we use are atrocious
."

You can listen to the interview here BBC.

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 September 2010

The £300 Write Off and Causality

1The Press Association reports today that Exchequer secretary David Gauke has stated that taxpayers who owe HMRC less than £300 will have the amount written off.

Fair enough!

Ermmm...hang on a minute though, was this £300 write off threshold not widely commented on last week on this very site; ie isn't this old news?

Take a look at many of the comments posted last week on this site, by various loyal readers, about the £300 write off.

Is this a case of the leak causing the announcement, or the pending announcement causing the leak?

Here is the Press Association report:

"Nearly one million people who did not pay enough income tax have had their repayment demands written off, it has emerged.

An estimated 900,000 workers will not receive a letter from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) demanding extra money after the Government raised the threshold under which it writes off any tax that is owed from £50 to £300.

It is thought that 2.3 million people have underpaid income tax during the past two tax years due to errors in their Pay As You Earn (PAYE) tax code, but only 1.4 million of these will be chased for the money.

Those who will have to make up the shortfall collectively owe around £2 billion, or an average of £1,428 each.

But Exchequer secretary David Gauke promised that the Government would make collecting the money people owed "as painless as possible".

People who owe less than £2,000 will be able to pay the money in monthly instalments taken from their salary during the 2011/2012 tax year.

Those who can show they are unable to afford to repay all of the money in one year will also be given the option of paying it back over three years.

Mr Gauke said: "In total, the Exchequer is owed approximately £2 billion. Being left with the worst deficit in peacetime history means we simply cannot afford to write off all of these underpayments.

"To ensure that the tax system is fair for everyone, where everyone pays their fair share, we are taking action to recoup these funds as painlessly as possible."

But those who owe more than £2,000 could be charged interest of 3% - six times higher than the Bank of England base rate - on the money they owe if they do not repay it within deadlines set by HMRC.


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 September 2010

Welcome To The 19th Century

19th Century
The Telegraph reports that an all-party group of MPs will tell the Treasury that HMRC is "a 19th century organisation" in need of fundamental reform.

True enough, HMRC is falling apart at the seams.

However, I would venture to suggest that a 19th century organisation would have been better run and not made so many cock ups.

This shambles of an organisation is a result of a.o.:
- political dogma/arrogance,
- political interference,
- a staggeringly complex tax system,
- the politicisation of HMRC
- and lousy leadership within HMRC itself.

HMRC is now working on a major "recovery programme", which means that staff who handle "normal" HMRC business have been taken off their normal duties.

The result?

I would suggest more chaos, more delays and the eventual meltdown of our tax system in its current form.

Michael Fallon, a senior member of the Treasury select committee, said:

"It now looks as if there are even more mistakes in the pipeline.

We're going to have to find out why the computer system didn't work as it should, why it cost so much money and why they didn't design it in a way that is up to date with the way Britain works.

The whole thing needs changing
."

Ian Liddell-Grainger, chairman of the group, put the boot in further and said that HMRC was not up to the job of collecting income tax.

"HMRC is a 19th century organisation in a 21st century environment. It has not kept up with the times.

The PAYE system needs to be fundamentally reformed. The current systems are not robust enough to do the jobs they are supposed to do
."

The good news is that HMRC are insisting that the new computer system will improve the accuracy of tax codes "in the medium term".

By then we will be either dead or bankrupt!

HMRC is not fit for purpose..PERIOD!

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 September 2010

Panorama

Too Much Tax?Several weeks ago I wrote that Panorama were looking for people who have had problems with HMRC.

Following this weekend's "10 million issue" (which, according to some comments on my site, is "old news" and ""happens every year") I was contacted by the Producer of Panorama who asks that I repeat the request for people to come forward.

The programme will look at how and why so many incorrect tax codes were sent out in January, meet people who were affected, and try and identify groups who might be in for a surprise when correct codes are finally correctly calculated and demands for payments are sent out.

Panorama are particularly keen to identify any of the following case studies:

-Incorrect personal allowance/wrong tax code/dual codes
-Cases where an extra 1 (or other numeral) has appeared in front of some one’s salary
-Records of one-off payments being lost
-Any examples of entire companies’ workforce being affected
-Errors arising from people moving jobs
-Problems pensioners have had including wrong or missing married couples allowance, full tax allowances sent to different employers, tax allowances given to the wrong pension, etc
-Problems arising for graduates with employers being told to carry on deducting repayments even when loans have been repaid
-Ex-servicemen and women – (particularly recent veterans) being incorrectly taxed

As well as typical cases of people affected by the tax code errors, Panorama are also interested in hearing of other more unusual or extreme cases of lives being affected by HMRC errors.

Here is the original "casting call" from August:

"I have been contacted by Claire Judge, of Nine Lives Media, wrt a Panorama programme that she is doing research for. In brief, she is looking for people to contact her wrt issues/problems that they have experienced concerning HMRC.

Here is her request unedited:

"After last week’s report from the National Audit Office on HM Revenue 2009 – 2010 accounts, Nine Lives Media have been commissioned by BBC Panorama to make a programme: Are You Paying the Right Tax? The report highlighted the 18.2 million backlog of cases revealing that around half these cases are likely to involve an over or underpayment of tax and that these may lead to repayments and recoveries in the order of £3 and £1.4 billion. That’s a lot of people paying the wrong tax.

The programme will look at how and why so many incorrect tax codes were sent out in January, meet people who were affected, and try identify groups who might be in for a surprise when correct codes are finally calculated and demands for payments are sent out.

Claire, researcher at Nine Lives Media, says: “We thought one interesting approach might be to look at different sorts of common errors that have come to light following the tax code fiasco and look for examples of people who have already been affected.”

“We understand the importance of confidentiality, but if you have been affected by this, or know of anyone who might illustrate this problem we’d love to hear from you or have you pass on our interest. We would only ever broadcast details of a particular case if we had full consent of the people involved.”

If you wish to share your tax issues with Nine Lives, and potentially be involved in the programme, please call Claire on 0161 832 2007 or email claire.judge@ninelivesmedia.co.uk
."
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 September 2010

6 - 10 Million Paid Wrong Tax

wtf
Over the weekend the media reported that nearly six million people are to be told that they have paid the wrong amount of tax.

HMRC stated, at the time, that they will be demanding approximately £2BN back from certain taxpayers.

The story over the weekend was that £2BN has been underpaid through PAYE over the past two years, this negatively impacts 1.4 million taxpayers.

However, at the weekend it also appeared that approximately 4.3 million people had paid too much tax and will receive an average rebate of £418.

The errors were identified by the new computer system that found widespread underpayments by employers through the PAYE system.

However, since the story first broke there has been a revision in the number of taxpayers affected.

The Guardian now reports that over 10 million people may be in line for a tax rebate due to errors in HMRC's tax code system.

It seems that historic errors may have resulted in a further 5.8 million people (on top of the 4.3 million) overpaying income tax before March 2008.

HMRC seemingly has has 18.2  million "open" cases of incorrect tax payments pre-dating March 2008.

Spiffing!

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 September 2010

The Dash For Cash

Dash For Cash
Contractor UK warns that HMRC are making a "dash for cash" this Autumn.

The next few months will see an increase in the number of small firms being scrutinised under HMRC's inquiry process.

The reason?

Brown bankrupted Britain, and there is now a £158BN hole in the public finances.

Abbey Tax is quoted by Contractor UK as claiming that the number of insurance claims filed by accountants (triggered when a client receives an HMRC inquiry) doubled in June this year.

It will get worse.

HMRC inspectors have been tasked to bring in as much money as possible, as quickly as possible.

Make the most of the last few days of Summer, it's going to be a lousy Autumn!

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"