The Telegraph reports that David Gauke, a Treasury minister, has revealed in a written Parliamentary answer that 23% (almost 10,000) of those who used the "extra-statutory concession" A19 were successful and had their HMRC debt cancelled.
Why is this noteworthy?
Ah well you see in 2010, the same Mr Gauke claimed that it "does not apply that often in practice and I do not want people to build up their hopes that it will offer some kind of panacea".
To add to Gauke's embarrassment, 250,000 pensioners have also had their tax cancelled under the concession; this despite the fact that HMRC did their best to reject claims.
This whole issue of the applicability or otherwise of A19 came about as a result of the PAYE problems of last year, that prompted accountants to recommend that people use the A19 concession which puts HMRC on the backfoot if the taxpayer "could reasonably have believed that his or her tax affairs were in order".
Tax does have to be taxing.
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I wrote to my local MP:
ReplyDelete"Dear Iain Wright, will you please advise you colleague David Gauke that Tax Avoidance is not illegal? Otherwise he'll have to launch a crusade against Tax Codes, which are merely a device to enable us all to avoid tax. (I know I missed out the phrase "too much" but it is avoidance
nevertheless).
Please further advise him that it is Tax Evasion that is illegal and
that he should concentrate his efforts there (and correct his
terminology)"
I don't suppose he will though.
@12:52
ReplyDeleteSo so true. You know the tax system has gone to hell when HMRC dont know the difference between 'taxpayers' & 'customers' and confuse 'tax-avoidance' with 'tax-evasion'
And this is being done in the name of Her Majesty when in reality, its closer to Fraggle Rock.
They seem to have a new system now. Where an issue is plainly their error they are simply not bothering to reply to any mail concerning it.
ReplyDeleteI wrote to them (recorded post) at the beginning of Dec last year and have never had a reply. They are also refusing to communicate with my MP!
So, no way forward and we all sit in limbo as there seems no way to force a reply from them ?
Steve, I have the same problem too as a result of HMRC inertia.
ReplyDeleteOh lookey here... seems like we have a two year wait, courtesty of Mike Claptrap on the Daily Mail today.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1367049/Tax-chaos-2013-admits-HMRC-boss-tells-MPs-service-acceptable.html
"In a grilling at Westminster, HM Revenue and Customs chiefs confessed that the standard of service is regularly 'not acceptable'."
ReplyDeleteI think the phrase is "Complete Shit" actually.