Tuesday 31 July 2012

Bob The Bounty Hunter



HMRC is ever keen to up the tax take and has, for a number of years, been running a "hotline" whereby people can secretly "grass" on people they believe to be evading tax.

However, those who are not concerned about anonymity and who want to make a nice little earner out of "grassing" on others can receive reward payments from HMRC for tips that lead to successful prosecutions and the recovery of evaded tax.

Exaro News recently raised a Freedom of Information Request with HMRC, and discovered that over £1M has been paid out by HMRC in rewards to informants and "bounty hunters" over the last 3 years.

As the financial crisis rumbles on, so the bounties paid out have increased. The payout in 2011/12 was £374K compared with £309K in the previous year.

In earlier years £384K was paid in 2009-10, £281K in 2008-09, and £156K in 2007-08.

In 2008, HMRC was reported to have paid £100,000 to a former Liechtenstein banker for a list of secret offshore accounts held by Britons (ie HMRC bought stolen property).

Oddly enough HMRC does not openly promote the bounty payments, indeed some HMRC officials even deny that rewards are paid!

In the event that there are any wannabe "Bob the Bounty Hunters" out there then you want to be paid for "grassing", then do ensure that you keep a record and that you make a specific request for payment.

However, don't hold your breath, the process of recovering evaded tax can take many years and payments are at HMRC's "discretion" (ie they can welch on the deal).

Despite this the amount of tax recovered via the hotline is not staggering, between 2005 and 2009 a paltry £42M was recovered.

HMRC, for reasons best known to themselves, won't say how much has been recovered since.

Like it or not, maybe HMRC and the state can't quite turn us into a nation of informers!


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

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Monday 30 July 2012

Morning Has Broken - How To Handle an HMRC Dawn Raid



Pinsent Masons have recently updated their guide on how to deal with a dawn raid by HMRC.

A dawn raid is a search of premises carried out by HMRC, when it suspects that a tax fraud has been committed. Raids are generally carried out early in the morning. The guide is purely aimed at HMRC raids.

Of particular relevance is the advice that if HMRC don't want to wait for a solicitor to arrive then:
"Allocate a member of your staff to 'shadow' each officer of the search team. The role of the shadow is to keep a record of all documents examined, copied or removed by the HMRC officers."
The guide can be read via this link "How to manage an HMRC dawn raid".


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 27 July 2012

HMRC Publish Photo of Plumber

Three days ago I wrote:
"David Gauke has said that the government will name and shame wealthy people who use "aggressive" tax avoidance schemes."
Well blinkey blonkey blimey, a mere three days later and HMRC have named, shamed and published a photo of a taxpayer who has been found guilty and sent to jail for a year for tax evasion (£50K or thereabouts).

This was of course tax evasion (ie a crime) and, as such, jail etc is the probable/possible outcome (depending on the severity of the crime etc).

However, I am a tad perturbed though that HMRC were so keen to not only name and shame him but also publish his photo. Whilst a criminal does not usually have the right to anonymity, it seems a tad hypocritical of HMRC given that they keep banging on about taxpayer confidentiality when it comes to Vodafone et al.

Oh I didn't mention what the tax evader did for a living, he's not banker or such but a plumber (hence, probably, Gauke is so excited about cash in hand as he sees a soft target).

It is "ironic", is it not, that some criminals have their identities protected (lest their human rights or safety be threatened), yet HMRC happily publish the picture of a plumber?

Funny old world!

In other news, Barclays have today said sorry for rigging Libor and have announced that underlying first-half pre-tax profits rose 13% to £4.23BN.

Yay!!!

So all is right with the world, yes?

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 26 July 2012

A Nation of Spies



Dictatorships survive by encouraging their citizens to spy and inform on their fellow citizens. Orwell's 1984 foresaw this, and wrote of the children informing on their parents to Big Brother.

Step forward HMRC, which clearly has been reading 1984 and is now encouraging children to inform on those that they suspect of not paying "their fair share of tax".

HMRC has set up teaching modules to guide children through the maze of pay as you earn and National Insurance contributions.

Fair enough!

However some of the modules (which can be downloaded from HMRC's website) teach kids as young as 11 about paying their "fair share" of tax.

What the fark is "fair share"?

How is a child, or an adult, meant to know what someone-else's "fair share" of tax is meant to be?

HMRC makes use of video, games, facts and quizzes to “help make teaching financial capability and citizenship issues relevant and engaging”.

Pass the sick bag!

The Telegraph notes one module (“tax responsibilities of a good citizen”) which is meant to "help" teenagers “understand the obligations if being a good citizen and discuss what should happen to hose who are not prepared to work under such obligations”.

One lesson plan – targeted at 14 to 16 year olds – requires students to “discuss whether it is good to pay the tax we do, considering the benefits we receive. If it is good, then why do people try not to pay?

 It continues:
 “Show class the remaining factfile slides on tax evasion. What do students think of those who refuse to pay tax or try and defraud the benefits system? “Can they think of any example they may have heard of in their local area?” 

 A further “plenary session” asks:
 “What do students now think about paying taxes? In what other ways can we contribute to working together for a better society? “What do students think about people who try to avoid paying taxes? Is it a victimless crime? What kind of penalties should such people be given when they are caught?
David Green, director of Civitas, is unimpressed:
"This sounds a bit too 'Big Brotherish'. People 'in their local area' are most likely to be parents or close relatives. Turning children into state spies is un-British.




The state should fear the people, not the people fear the state!

Tax does have to be taxing.



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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 25 July 2012

Cash In Hand Poll



Tax does have to be taxing.



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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

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You're To Blame



My thanks to a loyal reader who pointed me to an article in This Is Money about a woman whose case recently went to a tax tribunal.

On January 10, 2011, HMRC sent her a letter asking her to complete a self assessment form.

She rang HMRC to ask for a form and was sent a paper return, which she completed and sent back.

Now as loyal readers know October is the filing date for paper returns, but not everyone is a loyal reader or tax expert. Needless to say, HMRC fined her £100 for late submission.

When the woman had rung HMRC’s helpline on January 17, no one pointed out to her that a paper submission would elicit a £100 fine.

The woman complained, and HMRC rejected her complaint. However, when it went to the tax tribunal, Judge Geraint Jones QC intervened and overturned the fine.
He rejected HMRC’s argument that responsibility for filing on time lay squarely on the shoulders of the taxpayer, saying:
"That proposition might be acceptable in circumstances where, by its conduct, HMRC has not misled the taxpayer or lulled her in to believing that she has fulfilled the obligations."
Quite so!


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 24 July 2012

Gauke's Moral Crusade



Yesterday our old friend David Gauke said that the government will name and shame wealthy people who use "aggressive" tax avoidance schemes. Gauke went on to say that companies offering such products will be forced to hand over details of their clients.

Today he continued with his "moral crusade", by stating that it is morally wrong to pay tradesmen cash in hand in the expectation of receiving a discount of the tax evaded.

Quite how he intends to stop that I don't know.

However, whilst he is so keen on moralising about the behaviour of others he might care to look to his own domestic arrangements.

Guido Fawkes points out the following:
"Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury David Gauke writing in The Times this morning says that they are going to name and shame tax dodgers. He also gives examples of what is fair and what is not:
Legitimate use of reliefs, for example taking out a tax-free ISA, is not tax avoidance. Buying a house for personal use through a company to avoid stamp duty, on the other hand, clearly is. Morally repugnant practices such as this are where the Government is cracking down.
David Gauke MP claimed £10,248.32 expenses back from taxpayers to avoid paying the stamp duty and fees involved in the purchase of his home in London. Not only is that in his own words “morally repugnant”, it is beyond hypocritical to lecture others against doing what he himself did. It is shameless."
On the subject of companies that offer tax avoidance advice, Gauke may care to have a word with his wife. Guido Fawkes notes the following:
"Gauke’s wife Rachel is a professional support lawyer for Lexis Nexis, a company which boasts of its ability to “support every tax practitioner on the front line as they deal with the tax collector“. 

According to her personal profile Rachel “specialises in corporate tax law…and has advised on corporate restructurings, M&A, investment funds and finance“.
As I stated in June, avoidance is a perfectly normal human thing to try to do, the politicians are not in a position to lecture the rest of us on "morality." A politician lecturing us on morality is as natural as a cat walking on its hind legs.

Tax does have to be taxing.




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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 23 July 2012

Nudge Unit Wants HMRC To Overclaim Tax



In what has to be the most cretinous suggestion to have come out of Number 10 thus far in the tax avoidance witch hunt, David Halpern, head of the Government's Behavioural Insights Team (aka 'The Nudge Unit'), has suggested that HMRC should deliberately overclaim taxes so it has to pay taxpayer a rebate at the end of the year.

At the Civil Service Live event Halpern said "it would be better for us to modestly overclaim tax" because when HMRC underclaims people become irritated and tempted to cheat.

He then went on to talk ever more bollocks about the "the psychological boost of getting a rebate" - and the possibility that people spend rebates:
"When people get tax back from HMRC, they feel great.

In the US, people love it, and they spend the money differently too. So we're trying to persuade you guys [HMRC] that's what you should do. Make sure you have a certain amount of outcome which means you have to give people their money back."
Our taxes are paying the salaries of cretins like Halpern!

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"

Gauke To Name and Shame



David Gauke has said that the government will name and shame wealthy people who use "aggressive" tax avoidance schemes. Gauke says that companies offering such products will be forced to hand over details of their clients.

Out of the window goes the concept of taxpayer confidentiality and, by the looks of it, "legally privileged" advice (given that some firms offering tax advice may well do so under the remit of a client/lawyer relationship)!

This is a very dangerous move.

Before overturning the principle of client confidentiality, here is a list of people who are using a variety of tax avoidance schemes.

Maybe Gauke should focus on these people first?

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 20 July 2012

People Engagement In HMRC


On Monday I wrote that HMRC hired a consultant, Nita Clarke, last year to produce a report on internal "people engagement":
"Step forward the Sunday Herald, which has obtained a copy of the report.

On the relationship between HMRC and its staff, the report was blunt:
"At the heart of the engagement challenge in HMRC is a disconnect between employees and the overall organisation.
Many employees feel that the organisation as a whole neither values, listens to, nor respects them."
My thanks to Paul Hutcheon of The Herald who has provided me with a link to the full report.

Nita Clarke (the author) is dismissive of HMRC's process based approach to challenges, and notes that such an approach often leads to disengagement. She states that employee engagement cannot be reduced to a process.

She notes that there is a disconnect between HMRC employees (at all levels, including management at senior levels) and the organisation itself.

Regrettably she thinks that Pacesetter is "highly effective".

She does, however, provide real insight into how absurd the bureaucracy in HMRC has become. Seemingly, in order to determine whether to fix a faulty door handle, HMRC needs to know how many people use the handle to be sure it’s economic to fix it. The solution to HMRC's mouse infestation (that's news to me) has been to ban people from eating at their desks.

Unfarkingbelieveable!

Those of you who wish to read the report may do so via this link "People Engagement in HMRC A report to ExCom and the HMRC trade unions".

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 19 July 2012

HMRC's Flickr Photostream



Those of you who wonder what the "great and the good" of HMRC look like, need wonder no longer.

Ladies and gentlemen HMRC proudly presents its own photostream on Flickr.

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"

Whither The Charter?



Last month I wrote that HMRC's Annual Report and Accounts 2011- 12 received a less than enthusiastic response from Margaret Hodge and the NAO, even though Mike Clasper and Lin Homer were upbeat about the achievements of HMRC.

However, within all the hoopla HMRC, PAC and NAO seem to have forgotten something that was once trumpeted as being "important".

To what do I refer?

The Charter published in 2009 .

There appears not to be a single mention of it in the report and accounts.

Does this mean that HMRC no longer see it as being important, or have they simply forgotten about it?


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 18 July 2012

The Phoneline That HMRC Really Does Answer



Now here's an interesting thing, there is (believe it or not) a telephone number that HMRC really does answer and take note of what is said by the caller.

I kid you not!

Can you guess what telephone number that is children?

Yes, that's right, it's the number to HMRC's tax evasion hotline!

Bloomsbury Professional submitted a Freedom of Information Request about the line, and the number of calls it receives. According to Accountancy Live HMRC’s tax evasion hotline received over 74,000 tip-offs about alleged tax evasion in 2011, a fall of around 9% from the previous year.

The hotline has received over 412,111 calls in the last five years.

A 2008 National Audit Office report revealed that just £2.6m in tax was collected as the result of the hotline in 2006-07, less than the expected £32.5m. 

HMRC said:
"HMRC has a responsibility to ensure everyone pays the tax that they owe, and clamping down on those who try to cheat the system is a key priority. 

We value the information we receive from the public through the tax evasion hotline, and all information is analysed and a decision made on the most appropriate course of action.

We are developing ways of exploiting the intelligence with our powerful profiling capability to match commercial, wealth and behavioural risk with important intelligence from taxpayers who are concerned about those that avoid paying their fair share."

Cough, can you spot the accidental "slip of the tongue" by HMRC within the above?

Yes, that's right, "avoid paying their fair share" (ie avoidance) being used as a basis for reporting tax evasion.

Cough!

Maybe it was just a slip of the tongue?

Sadly not, for if you go to the HMRC page that gives details of the tax EVASION hotline, you will see this phrase:
"A confidential phone line for you to report somebody who is not paying their fair share of tax."
"Fair share"?

That is a very judgemental and woolly phrase, associated with the bleatings of politicians and witchfinders who have been going on about avoidance and accusing all and sundry of avoiding tax; evasion is a crime, and occurs when someone deliberately understates their taxable income with the intent to defraud.

The original purpose of the line was purely for tax evasion (see this page from Direct Gov published in 2009). However, HMRC are now, like the politicians, trying to blur the distinction between avoidance and evasion.

Wrt "fair share" (which has no legally recognised meaning), how the hell can someone (without full access to the financial records of an individual/company) know what that person's/company's "fair share" is?

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 17 July 2012

RTI On Track - Gauke Nixes Centralised Deductions



Despite the fact that Stephen Barnyard (or is it Banyard?), the man with his hand on tiller of HMRC's flagship RTI, is soon to retire and that the All-Party Parliamentary Taxation Group (APPTG) has called into doubt the achieve-ability of the RTI October 2013 deadline in their report ‘PAYE at the Crossroads’ David Gauke (the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury) says that everything is fine and on schedule.

For good measure he also rejected the APPTG recommendation for centralised deductions. APPTG were of the view that centralised deductions:
"would remove most of, if not all of, PAYE’s negative dimensions and revolutionise the way that citizens interact with the state."
Pay and Benefits reports that Gauke said:
We are pursuing Real-Time Information (RTI). We are not pursuing Centralised Deductions.
Regarding delaying RTI, he said:
It is on track and going well.

We are optimistic it will deliver to the timetable.”
ROFLOL!

HMRC's RTI flagship sails majestically towards its destiny!

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"

Homer Defies PAC



I see that Lin Homer is attempting to defy requests from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to hand over documents detailing tax deals agreed with five large corporations (including Goldman Sachs and Vodafone).

Exaro News reports that Homer has personally rebuffed the request, and insists that taxpayer confidentiality prevents her from showing the documents to the cross-party committee.

Taxpayer confidentiality is, to my view, a principle that should be defended. However, PAC are of the view that it should be dispensed with for these five companies.

PAC held a private session with HMRC chiefs, including Homer, and Sir Andrew Park, the tax judge who had advised the NAO, at the end of last month.

Margaret Hodge told Homer:
Our view is that you do have the discretion – I know that this is contested – and it is also in the public interest, to enable us to have at least the background documents that you gave to the NAO, so that we can understand better the systemic issues that have been of concern to the committee, by looking at the details of the particular cases.

The committee has discussed this, and, of course, we would be happy to look at the documents in confidence, if that is your wish. But we feel that we need access to those papers to do our job properly. 

Are you willing to use your discretion to enable us to hold you to, what I consider to be, proper public account?
Homer replied:
Our duty to taxpayer confidentiality prohibits me from sharing, unless either I do so in pursuit of my function as a commissioner, or there is specific statutory gateway.
The question arises is Homer taking this stand on the genuine basis of the principle of protecting taxpayer confidentiality, or is she using this as an excuse to avoid handing over documents that might embarrass HMRC?

It is not clear cut to my view, and I would welcome views and comments.

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 16 July 2012

Real Time Information - What it Means for Employers



HMRC have published a video for employers about RTI (Real Time Information).

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"

PAC Hearing - BBC Tax Practices Reviewed By HMRC

Zarin Patel, CFO of BBC has just said that:
"Every one of our [the BBC's] tax practices are annually reviewed by HMRC."
So that's OK then!

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

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Lean - The Reality Behind The Bullshit



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"

HMRC's Truth and Reconciliation Commission



My thanks to several loyal readers who pointed me to a very interesting article in yesterday's Herald, concerning the abysmally poor levels of staff moral in HMRC.

As loyal readers are well aware (especially those of you who work within HMRC), staff morale is pretty well at rock bottom; staff surveys have not only scored HMRC as appalling but the participation rates have fallen:
"HMRC response rate to the the 2011 People Survey is a whopping 52%..... a full 17% down on last year."
The problems became so acute that HMRC hired a consultant, Nita Clarke, last year to produce a report on internal "people engagement".

Step forward the Sunday Herald, which has obtained a copy of the report.

On the relationship between HMRC and its staff, the report was blunt:
"At the heart of the engagement challenge in HMRC is a disconnect between employees and the overall organisation. 

Many employees feel that the organisation as a whole neither values, listens to, nor respects them."
This should come as no surprise to the loyal readers of this site, as this point has been made time and time again by myself and many loyal readers who work at the "coalface".

Sadly, those of you hoping for an improvement will be sorely disappointed, the report states that there were "no grounds for suggesting that a transformation in engagement levels is imminent".

The report also noted (again something that has been said many times before on this site) that staff felt they were unable to speak out internally about issues in HMRC:
"Many of these problems were felt to emanate from behaviour at the top of the organisation. 

ExCom [HMRC's executive committee] members were perceived to behave on occasion in a competitive, non-collegiate way."
LOL!

It occurs to me that HMRC could have saved the taxpayers the expense of hiring a consultant, by simply reading what is said on this site on a day to day basis by their own members of staff!

The report quite correctly recognises that part of the process of rebuilding trust had to include leaders "acknowledging and accepting responsibility for things that have gone wrong".

Despite this, Clarke appears to be upbeat and claims that she had "every confidence" that HMRC would "embed a new culture based on trust and empowerment".

A spokesman for HMRC said:
"We were disappointed with the results of last year's staff survey and invited Nita Clarke to work with staff and unions to chart a way forward - There have been changes and we are determined to make further improvements."
Hmm, I think a more realistic assessment of the challenge faced by HMRC has been expressed by an unnamed senior figure at HMRC who said that the problems at HMRC were so severe that they required a process of "truth and reconciliation".

This was an open and honest assessment in my view, kudos to whoever said it.

In theory a "truth and reconciliation" process, akin to the one performed some years ago in South Africa, could work.

However, South Africa's truth and reconciliation process worked because people respected and trusted the leadership of Nelson Mandela and his colleagues, and had a genuine desire to forge a new and enlightened future under his leadership.

Can the same be said of people's feelings towards Homer and her fellow Excoms?

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"

Saturday 14 July 2012

Bon Voyage Stephen Banyard



Q: Why is Stephen Barnyard (or is it Banyard?;)) so upbeat and effusive about RTI?

A: He is retiring soon!

As per PAYE At The Crossroads:
"Stephen Banyard will be shortly stepping down from his position and retiring. He leaves behind him a legacy of modernisation and the APPTG wish him well in his retirement. 

We hope his successor will be able to continue along the path that Stephen has laid out."
Aha!

He could of course come back as a paid consultant, if things don't run smoothly;)

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"