The State Supports Avoidance

Contrary to what the politicians would have us believe, the state very much favours tax avoidance (until, that is, its avoidance measures enter the public domain).

As per the Telegraph:

"Two Government departments have been fined and 100 NHS bosses and civil servants have been fired after the Treasury discovered that staff were being paid “off the books” through companies. 

Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, fined the Ministry of Defence and the Department of Health a total of £1.5million after it emerged that they were not doing enough to stop staff being paid through companies and potentially reducing their tax bills."

Quel surprise!

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"

Beaker's Tax Matters

A loyal reader opined the following yesterday, about Beaker:

"wonder if our mate Danny will be caught preaching one thing and doing another like his Two friends today reported to be selling their time!

Hundreds of old has beens, fiddling bastards, and corrupt liars and we're paying their wages..... sorry 'part' of their wages, oh, and only the bit they have to declare.

HMRC Don't ever chase me for my tax, not until you get off your arses, put your own house in order and are seen to be treating everyone consistently and fairly."

Ironically I came across this article in the Telegraph from 2010, which noted:

"Mr Alexander, who was appointed on Saturday after the resignation of fellow Liberal Democrat David Laws, designated the property as his second home for the purpose of claiming parliamentary expenses but described it to HM Revenue and Customs as his main home."

All perfectly legal, as indeed was the fact he took advice from a tax professional to avoid CGT on the sale of the taxpayer funded house at the time.

However, I find it "tedious" that the very same people who use tax professionals to minimise their tax bill, then lecture everyone else about the "morality" of paying their "fair share" of tax (whatever that really means?) and the "immorality" of tax avoidance.

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"

Advice To Beaker

Danny Alexander calls for corporate tax evasion crackdown http://t.co/yHuwV5ewsl /5 years at Treasury, never heard of Money Laundering Regs?
— Jon Stow (@JonStow) February 22, 2015

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"

Nudge Nudge, Wink Wink

Beaker Alexander has proudly told the world that HMRC is now using a team of psychologists and "behavioural economists" to make people feel guilty if they don't pay their taxes on time.

LOL!

Those who deliberately evade taxes don't give a fark about feeling "guilty".

Anyhoo, it seems that HMRC has subtly altered the wording of hundreds of thousands of letters sent out to the public to encourage people to pay up.

The Telegraph reports that the letters include statements highlighting how the "great majority" of people pay their taxes on time, while also setting out the importance of taxes in funding public services.

A similar "nudge" approach, developed by the government's "behavioural analysis team", is being used to target potential tax evaders who are being sent letters asking them to clarify their tax affairs.

Earlier this year HMRC has sent 5,000 "nudge" letters to people with Swiss accounts, urging them to pay any outstanding tax. Those who do not respond face a full tax inquiry.

Beaker told his Liberal colleagues:

"We are using psychologists and behavioural economists in HMRC to get the money quickly. 

Tax dodgers beware – we know where you live, we know how much you owe, and now we know how you think. Your behaviour is unacceptable, and we are coming for our money."

HMRC said it conducted "large scale" trials involving 100,000 taxpayers to "pinpoint the exact words and concepts" which make people more likely to pay their taxes.

The letters now include phrases such as "nine out of 10 people in the UK pay their tax on time", or "most people with a debt like yours have now paid it". In many cases, local comparisons were used to encourage people to pay up.

I wonder if HMRC has sent such letters to companies such as Google?

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 To Raid Bank Accounts

Here's an interesting pre Budget leak, according to the Mail (which sourced the story from the Sun) money owed to the Treasury by certain taxpayers will be taken directly from their bank accounts.

Aside from the fact that pre Budget leaks should not occur in the first place (sadly pre Budget Purdah has long since been abandoned by Chancellors both Labour and Tory), and the fact that the report is in the Mail, there seems to be some confusion in the article over whether the alleged new powers relate to tax owed by those who have an outstanding tax liability (tax debts can be built up by law abiding citizens) or only those who have evaded tax (ie broken the law).

Anyhoo, if the Mail is correct, HMRC will be given the power to take money from those who owe HMRC over £1K and who repeatedly ignore HMRC's attempts to recover the money owed. Currently HMRC has the power to seize assets.

The new power is to be revealed in next week's Budget, and is apparently one of Beaker Alexander's ideas.

Well then, if this story is true, let's see how this works in practice!


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"

Beaker's Significant Tool

I am highly gemused to see that our political masters and HMRC have something of a sense of humour, and have published in advance their April Fools' Day joke.

I refer of course to Danny "Beaker" Alexander's "Significant Tool", aka HMRC's Tax and Procurement Discussion Document. This "fine" document came about as a result of Beaker's comments on 25th September 2012 about "tax dodgers":

"Taxpayers’ money should not be funding tax dodgers. So I have tasked HMRC and the Cabinet Office to come up with a workable solution to this problem and we will set out more details later this year."

The document proposes that individuals and businesses that have taken part in tax avoidance could be denied government contracts.

Potential suppliers will be required to notify contracting departments of their recent tax compliance history and state if any return has been found to be incorrect as a result of HMRC successfully challenging it under the general anti-abuse rule (as per the Finance Bill 2013),  an anti-avoidance rule, or the Halifax abuse principle.

Government departments will be allowed to terminate an agreement if the service provider subsequently breaches tax compliance obligations.

For good measure the proposals are to operate retrospectively, with (as per Taxation) a possible a ten-year time limit relating to the date the non-compliance was recognised.

In the event that anyone has any comments on the proposals, they should be submitted by email no later than 28 February to HMRC's David Harris or Robert Sanford.

Good luck with that then!

On the subject of tax avoidance etc, Mapeley anyone?

How ironic that HMRC, a staunch and shouty opponent of tax avoidance had in fact signed a contract that involves tax avoidance through an offshore company.

Clearly a case of do as we say, rather than do as we do!

Aside from Mapeley I would wager that a good many companies that our political masters sign contracts with (or indeed have shares in, or sit on the boards of) are doing their best to reduce their tax bills (ie avoiding taxes).


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



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"

The Joy of Affluence

In October last year I wrote about the expansion of HMRC's "Affluent Unit":

"Much has been made by some, eg Danny "Beaker" Alexander, about the expansion of HMRC's "Affluent Unit" (the team set up in October 2011 that targets tax evasion by "wealthy" people - those worth more than £1M).

Beaker said the other week that an extra 100 inspectors and specialists will be recruited to scrutinise the tax affairs of the 500,000 wealthiest people in the country."

However, despite all the puff and bluster of Beaker, nothing tangible has thus far been done by HMRC to recruit these extra 100 inspectors.

Fear not HMRC have realised that they actually now need to back up Beaker's words with some action, on Wednesday this week HMRC announced that they will begin recruiting the extra 100 inspectors. Adverts, allegedly, will start to appear at the end of this month (some 4/5 months or so after Beaker made his announcement, there's dynamism for you!).

Oh, and by the way, could someone please tell me why HMRC simply doesn't merge the "Affluent Unit" with its "High Net Worth Unit"; thus saving money and resources and focusing its skills/knowledge in one single department?

Here is HMRC's announcement in full (I am gemused to see that the definition of wealthy people targeted covers many of our elected representatives!):

"The tax team dedicated to ensuring the better off play by the rules is set to expand, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) said today.

The Affluent Compliance Team is to begin recruitment of 100 additional inspectors as the work of the unit expands.

In addition to taxpayers with an annual income of more than £150,000 and wealth of between £2.5 million and £20 million, the unit will also cover those with wealth in the range £1 million to £2.5 million.

By the end of December the unit had brought in an extra £75 million in tax - well ahead of expectations – with a target of £586 million by the end of 2015.

Exchequer Secretary David Gauke said:

“HMRC set up the new Affluent Teams from some of the £917 million we made available in 2010. The team has made a great start by bringing in £75 million in additional tax that would otherwise have been lost to the country.

“The vast majority of people pay their way. Dodging tax is immoral, illegal and unaffordable and the minority who cheat are increasingly finding that, thanks to the work of the Affluent Team, they have made a big mistake.”

Roger Atkinson, Director of the Affluent Teams, said:

“In September 2012 the Government announced an additional investment of £5 million, enabling us to recruit an extra 100 inspectors. We will recruit from within HMRC and externally and the new team will be fully operational by April and focused on delivering an additional £75 million a year.

“We want to recruit people with external experience and appropriate qualifications for inspector and lead case director roles. We want people with recent commercial and corporate experience in personal tax to help us understand our customer base. This is an exciting opportunity to work at the forefront, tackling those who do not pay the right tax.

“Good quality intelligence is central to catching the cheats and so we are expanding our Affluent Intelligence Unit fourfold.

“This is very good news for all honest taxpayers.”

Notes for editors

1. The affluent population covers those with income over £150,000 or wealth between £2.5 and £20 million, consisting of about 300,000 people.

2. The team currently has 200 staff based in17 teams in six locations across the UK.

3. Common characteristics of the Affluent Compliance Team’s targets:

Wealthy people who

-habitually use avoidance schemes
-have a low effective Rate of Tax across their total income
-have bank accounts in Switzerland who appear to be understating their tax liability
-fail to file their Self Assessment return on time
-avoid or evade Stamp Duty on property purchases
-have UK and offshore property portfolios

4. Adverts for the 100 additional inspectors will appear towards the end of January."

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



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"

The Joy of Affluence

Much has been made by some, eg Danny "Beaker" Alexander, about the expansion of HMRC's "Affluent Unit" (the team set up in October 2011 that targets tax evasion by "wealthy" people - those worth more than £1M).

Beaker said the other week that an extra 100 inspectors and specialists will be recruited to scrutinise the tax affairs of the 500,000 wealthiest people in the country.

That's all very nice and dandy, maybe.

However, please could someone explain to me why HMRC also has another unit that also focuses on "wealthy" people?

HMRC's "High Net Worth Unit" focuses on people with assets of more than £20M.

Why does HMRC need two units?

Does this mean that the Affluent Unit doesn't look at tax evasion by those worth more than £20M?

Why are they not merged into one; thus saving time, money, resources and confusion?

Comments and views welcome, as always.

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 Taxwise.

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 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 Customer Relationship Managers

As we shake off the dregs of the Bank Holiday weekend, and gently ease ourselves into the week ahead, here is an amusing variation on the concept of a "customer relationship manager" courtesy of HMRC.

In the real world CRM's are (in theory) meant to act as the interface between the customer and the organisation that they represent (eg bank, FMCG etc etc); hopefully smoothing away any "irritations" that may have upset the customer, thus leading the way to increased sales etc.

In HMRC's world a CRM is assigned to those "customers" (ugh how I loath that word when used in connection with tax matters) who come under the remit of HMRC's Affluent Unit. The Affluent Unit was set up in September 2011, with much fanfare by Danny "Beaker" Alexander, to handle the tax affairs of those individuals who earn more than £150K per annum. It consists of around 2,000 experienced HMRC staff members, who were reassigned from other duties within HMRC.

HMRC's publicly stated purpose of their CRM's is to provide better “customer service”. However, as the Telegraph notes, the CRM also builds up a detailed knowledge of their "customer's" tax affairs. Thus HMRC is in a better position to identify possible tax evasion, and will use the information garnered by the CRM's to investigate their clients.


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"

Tax Avoidance Hypocrisy - GOD Approved The Ed Lester Deal

Documents obtained by Exaro show that Sir Gus (now Lord) O’Donnell (GOD), as cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, approved Ed Lester's special pay deal.

It also seems that Danny "Beaker" Alexander, chief secretary to the Treasury, was informed of the plan, although he has said that he was unaware of any potential tax benefit to Lester.


Tax does have to be taxing.

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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"

Beaker Lays Down The Law

I am gemused to read that the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny "Beaker" Alexander, has decreed that athletes resident outside of the UK who compete at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games will be exempt from income tax.

Under UK tax rules, any sportsperson not resident in the UK is subject to UK income tax on any payment in connection with their performance here, including a proportion of any worldwide endorsement income.

Beaker said:

"With six months tomorrow to go until London 2012, I’m pleased to announce this special exemption for Glasgow 2014 which will prolong the Olympic legacy and help spread the long-term benefits into Scotland."

Are we to assume that no one would have competed in the games if the tax exemption had not been put in place?


Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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"

Beaker's Terrific Wheeze III - Weasel Words

I am pleased to see that it is not just this site, and its loyal readers, who can see that Danny "Beaker" Alexander was bullshitting when he claimed that HMRC would recruit an extra 2,000 or so tax inspectors for the new Effluent....sorry...I mean Affluent Unit.

None other than the FT has also pointed out that he talking bollocks, and that the job cuts (from 66,000 to 56,000 by 2015) in HMRC will continue.

Unsurprisingly, I am still waiting for him to answer my Tweet to him about it...I won't hold my breath!

Here is the FT article in full:

"Conference platforms can turn even quite decent ministers into smoke-and-mirrors artistes. Take those press reports from the Lib Dem conference in Birmingham about HM Revenue & Customs recruiting thousands of staff to launch a crackdown on the rich. “Extra inspectors recruited to target wealthy tax avoiders,” proclaimed the Independent. Under the banner “Soak the Rich!” the Daily Mail reported that Treasury chief secretary Danny Alexander was “recruiting a team of 2,250 tax inspectors to launch raids on the wealthy”. I trust Notebook readers were not taken in.

Well you didn’t think that the auburn-haired Mr Alexander meant that extra people were being recruited did you? 

Surely you were savvy enough to spot the weasel words? 

What the minister said was that “an additional 2,250 staff will move into new anti-evasion and avoidance jobs”. 

In plain English, existing HMRC staff will move from their present jobs to work on tax evasion by the rich in a new “affluent” unit. Mr Alexander told the Lib Dems that “this month over 1,000 of these jobs are being advertised”. And so they are – all of them internally. (No, I wouldn’t dream of describing him as Duplicitous Danny. He is just dexterous with words.) Meanwhile, the cull of HMRC staff from the present 66,000 to 56,000 in 2014/15 continues. 

HMRC insiders are cynical about the whole exercise. “It takes four years to train a tax inspector,” says one. “You can’t just whistle ’em up. And you’d need the best ones – senior civil servants – to tackle rich people who hire top accountants to advise them how to avoid tax legally. 

“The risk is that by taking staff away from chasing ordinary people, who provide the bulk of tax revenue, the Exchequer will lose out. It’ll be interesting to see if the numbers will really add up.” 

HMRC’s new “affluent unit”, whose old staffers will concentrate on the 350,000 people earning more than £150,000, has been told to bring in an extra £560m for the Exchequer by 2014/15. That will be election year. The punters will not want any tricksy interpretations of the word “extra”."

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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"

Beaker's Terrific Wheeze II - The Reality Behind the Bullshit

My thanks to the loyal reader who has succinctly, and eloquently, summed up the reality behind Danny "Beaker" Alexander's bullshit statement about recruiting 2,000 extra tax inspectors.

Suffice to say, Beaker is talking bollocks; in fact his "plan" will, cost the taxpayer more and make service levels worse.

I wonder if Georgie Porgie knows?

Here is the reality behing the bullshit:


"In the words of Jim Royal "My arse", all that's happening is transfers to enforcement and compliance. 

This will be mainly from processing, and they are going to recruit fixed term appointments to plug the gap until the NPS system is running without the glitches then dump them.

So if you think it's a long time to get a reply from HMRC now just wait until the new bods start (well they will need some training won't they)."

Note I am still waiting fro Beaker to answer my Tweet yesterday asking him where the money is coming from. 

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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"

Beaker's Terrific Wheeze

I am gemused to see that Danny "Beaker" Alexander (Chief Secretary to the Treasury) has come up with a terrific "wheeze", and announced the recruitment of 2,000 new tax inspectors.

Ermmm..now forgive me if I am a little confused, but are HMRC not in the process of downsizing and laying off tax inspectors?

How much will this cost, and where in the HMRC budget is this coming from?

Has no one told Beaker about the downsizing of HMRC, or does this mean that the policy has been reversed?

Answers on a postcard to "Beaker C/O HMT".

FYI, I tweeted Beaker asking where the money is coming from to pay for it..if he answers I will update you.

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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"

Lost - The £9.9BN

The Liberal Democrats have accused HMRC of losing almost £10BN of public money owing to flaws (fraud, error and overpayments) in the tax credit system.

The tax credit computer system was recently condemned by the Public Accounts Committee for suffering "the highest rate of error and fraud in central government", and is losing £1BN a year as a result of erroneous tax credit payments each year.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Danny Alexander said:

"The government's boasts about the tax credit system have been exposed as spin."

The treasury has refuted the numbers, saying they ignore the fact the that HMRC will recover the majority of overpayments and that it includes "unrelated" figures.

Maybe so, but wouldn't it save time, money and effort if these overpayments were never made in the first place?

Tax does have to be taxing.

The New Statesman, Britain's leading political magazine is delighted to announce that HMRC Is Shite has been nominated for a New Media Award in the category of Campaign For Change. The campaign for change award will go to the individual or organisation that has most effectively influenced opinions and behaviour through the use of new media technology. The winner of this award will champion a cause and provide information and tools to instigate change.

The full press release can be downloaded here.

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"