Wakey Wakey!

My thanks to a loyal reader who posted the following comment, which speaks for itself:

""All gone quiet over there..."

What has happened to the apparent 'fizz' created when the news seeped out?

Also, as previously intimated, has Homer crossed equal opportunity guidance with using a house of God for the backslapping attaboy event to the exclusion of other faiths and minority groups of workers?

The irony of the situation is bordering on farcical given the continuing poor performance and lack of engagement by HMRC, but the sheeple are unsighted as per norm."

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's Scattergun Approach To Tax Collection

The child benefit clusterfuck created by Osborne has, as expected, caused a mass of confusion and extra costs.

HMRC has been berated by UHY Hacker Young for sending out "incorrect" letters to higher rate taxpayers it suspects have not repaid their child benefit payments.

HMRC has sent out 30,000 letters, in a scattergun approach, to parents who it claims failed to account for the child benefit charge when they completed last year’s self-assessment tax return.

UHY Hacker Young says that this has caused "widespread confusion", as HMRC appears to have failed to check whether the payment has already been paid by an individual’s partner before sending out the letters.

Mike Crellin, a tax director at UHY Hacker Young, is quoted by the Telegraph:

"We have had lots of queries about these letters from concerned taxpayers, who thought they had their affairs in order but are now worried that they have made an expensive mistake.

In most cases, they have in fact completed the return and paid their tax perfectly correctly.

HMRC has gone to the lengths of checking the child benefit database, but it hasn’t joined the dots by working out who in the household is supposed to be paying the additional charge and whether or not it has been paid. It is putting the burden of doing that checking on the tax payer, and the scattergun approach is certainly causing a lot of unnecessary worry in the process."

A spokesman for HMRC said those who have paid the charge should disregard the letter. He said:

"These letters are simply designed to help taxpayers get their returns right by reminding customers who file under self assessment of the importance of including the high income child benefit charge on their tax return." 

Scattergun approaches may be all very well, if you are an internet spammer or cold caller selling a PPI reclaim service. However, HMRC should be above such nonsense.

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 Pays Better Than Treasury

Giving evidence to the Treasury Select Committee on Tuesday, Sir Nicholas Macpherson, the most senior civil servant at the Treasury, said that better pay being offered by the Bank of England and HMRC made it hard to prevent talented junior staff in the Treasury from jumping ship.

He is quoted by the Independent:

“In the last year we’ve lost twelve people to the Bank of England.

It’s slightly frustrating that the Bank of England’s a nationalised industry... but these guys just pay a lot more than us.

It’s frustrating for us to be some sort of feeder second division Belgian football team which provides really good people for Premier League teams like Chelsea and Manchester United.” 

Moving on to HMRC he said:

“We have a lot of staff in their late twenties who will go and get a job at HMRC because they can get £10,000 more a year.” 

Only 13% of Treasury employees felt they were receiving reasonable pay compared to people doing a similar job in other organisations. The comparable figure at HMRC was 23%.

So there you go, it seems that HMRC outranks the Treasury in terms of pay.

Drinks all round!

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's New NED's Lack Tax Experience

HMRC have appointed two new Non Executive Directors to the board, neither of whom have any specific experience in tax or finance.

Mervyn Walker and Simon Ricketts have joined the HMRC Board as successors to Philippa Hird and Norman Pickavance, who recently left their roles.

Both appointees bring a wide range of senior management experience to the Board, which is tasked with helping HMRC to deliver its agenda and maximise its performance.

Financial Secretary to the Treasury David Gauke said:

“These appointments provide a rich mix of Board-level experience in major corporations. They will bring new and further capability and credible challenge to Board discussions.”

Ian Barlow, HMRC Lead Non-Executive Director, said:

“I am delighted with these appointments. Simon Ricketts and Mervyn Walker both have vast experience to help HMRC face the challenges of the future. HMRC’s Chief Executive, Lin Homer, and I would also like to thank Philippa Hird and Norman Pickavance for their valuable contributions.”

Simon and Mervyn will take up their roles as Board members on 1 September. Philippa Hird retired from the Board after serving for five and a half years, and Norman Pickavance stepped down to take up an executive role with a private company.

Notes to Editors

1. Simon Ricketts is Chief Information Officer of Rolls Royce PLC, a position he has held since 2010, where he is accountable for IT and business process transformation. He has extensive experience of leading large and complex cross-functional transformation programmes, in particular IT, manufacturing, logistics and customer service. He has also held senior roles at Scottish and Newcastle PLC, Cadbury Schweppes and British Steel. His broad experience as a Non-Executive Director most recently involved seven years on the main Board and Audit Committees at the National Savings and Investment Bank.
2. Mervyn Walker has broad experience in a range of roles in large customer service and industrial companies. He has been Group Human Resources Director at three FTSE-listed companies – British Airways, Mondi and, most recently, Anglo American. He also has extensive experience of organisational transformation in large and complex organisations. A lawyer by background, Mervyn now holds a portfolio of non-executive roles.
3. HMRC’s Board brings together six members of the department’s Executive Committee and six Non-Executive Directors, who bring an external perspective to the Board’s advice.
4. More information on the HMRC Board, including its recruitment processes, can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/groups/hmrc-board

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's £5.6BN Planned Smash and Grab

Despite the silky smooth assurances of Gauke and HMRC that the plans for DRD would only affect recalcitrant tax debtors, it seems that (as noted yesterday) there is more than a wee bit of mission creep built into the plans for DRD.

The Independent reports that the debt owed to government (the taxpayer), after more than a decade of overpaying tax credits, has now reached more than £5.6BN.

HMRC plans to seize money from around 3,000 people's bank accounts a year for overpaid tax credits, according to figures released by HMRC, in response to a Freedom of Information request by the campaign group False Economy.

Now loyal readers will recall that when DRD was first mooted, Lin Homer stated that the amount that HMRC would raise over four years would be in total around £375M.

Either she is lying, or the DRD scheme is but pissing in the wind against a debt of over £5.6BN.

Which is it, is Homer lying or is HMRC pissing in the wind?

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"

DRD Mission Creep

And so it begins!

HMRC powers to recoup unpaid #tax directly from accounts could also be used to recover money from people paid too much in tax credits.
— The Morning Account (@MorningAccount) September 1, 2014

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"