Tuesday, 18 August 2020

IRONY KLAXON - MTD Planned Downtime and Service Issues!

Making Tax Digital for VAT: service availability and issues

Updated 18 August 2020

Service availability

Full service available.

If you’re trying to create, sign in or reset your user ID or password, check for known problems with Government Gateway.

Planned downtime

Saturday 22 August 2020 7:45pm to 4:30pm Monday 24 August 2020

Due to scheduled maintenance you will be unable to access our online service from 7:45pm on Saturday 22 August 2020 to 4:30pm on Monday 24 August 2020.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Service issues

VAT notice of assessment of tax

Some ‘VAT notice of assessment of tax’ letters recently sent to Making Tax Digital customers were issued in error.

If your business has already submitted the VAT return in question and paid the tax due or received its repayment, you can ignore this letter. You can check your position using your ‘HMRC online services’ and agents can check this on your behalf by using the ‘Manage your client’s details’ service.

Overseas businesses

If you’re unable to sign up an overseas business because you are being asked for information that only a UK based customer can give, contact the VAT helpline, giving the VAT registration numbers and business names so that HMRC can amend the customer record. This can take up to 14 days.

We’ve already amended the records of many overseas customers we’ve previously been told about and sign up for these customers should now be successful.

Other services

Check the availability and issues of other services.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Tax Investigation Insurance

Having a Solar Protect Tax Investigation Insurance policy at your disposal means that should you be one of the many 1000's of businesses or individuals that are selected by HMRC each year to look into your tax affairs your own accountant (your tax return agent) can get on and defend you robustly.

You have the peace of mind knowing that your accountant's (your tax return agent) fees will be paid by the insurance without any Excess for you to find.

Tax Investigation Insurance is an insurance policy that will fully reimburse your accountants (your tax return agent) fees up to £100,000 if you are subject to enquiry by or dispute with HMRC.

A Solar Protect policy will enable your Accountant (your tax return agent) to:

Deal with any correspondence from HMRC
Attend any meeting with HMRC
Appeal to the First-tier Tribunal or Upper Tribunal
Having the security of knowing that fees will be met in full will enable your Accountant (your tax return agent) to defend your position robustly
Premiums are Annual Premiums.
Premiums are inclusive of 12% IPT.
Premiums and IPT are due in full in advance / at commencement of scheme.
There is a NIL excess on all policies.

Please click here for details.

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, 17 August 2020

Second SEISS Tranche Opens This Morning

Angela MacDonald, Deputy Chief Executive of HMRC, is quoted by the Express talking about the second tranche of SEISS:

"We are trying very hard to contact all of those people who are eligible in order to help them understand when they can make their claim.
Our claims window is initially open for a four-day period.
But if somebody thinks that they are eligible and they haven't been contacted by us, they can go onto the online system.
It will tell them if they're eligible and when it is that they can make their claim.

But people shouldn't worry about needing to do everything too much in a rush.
If you don't manage it in those first four days, the claim system is actually open until October 19.
So therefore everybody's got the time to do things that suit their working situation at the moment."

Deal with any correspondence from HMRC
Attend any meeting with HMRC
Appeal to the First-tier Tribunal or Upper Tribunal
Having the security of knowing that fees will be met in full will enable your Accountant (your tax return agent) to defend your position robustly
Premiums are Annual Premiums.
Premiums are inclusive of 12% IPT.
Premiums and IPT are due in full in advance / at commencement of scheme.
There is a NIL excess on all policies.

Please click here for details.

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, 12 August 2020

HMRC Did Well With SEISS

The Mirror reports that HMRC has miscalculated thousands of SEISS grants given to the self-employed to help them through the coronavirus crisis.

It seems that HMRC has overpaid approximately 16,200 grants ( 0.6% of the total).

HMRC has written to all those affected by the error which arose from “failing to take into account all relevant information when determining eligibility”.

They will not be asked to repay the funds, but should expect a lower sum should they make an application for a second grant.

Given the magnitude of the task, and speed with which it was enacted, I think an error rate of 0.6% is bloody good.

Kudos to HMRC on this one!

Deal with any correspondence from HMRC
Attend any meeting with HMRC
Appeal to the First-tier Tribunal or Upper Tribunal
Having the security of knowing that fees will be met in full will enable your Accountant (your tax return agent) to defend your position robustly
Premiums are Annual Premiums.
Premiums are inclusive of 12% IPT.
Premiums and IPT are due in full in advance / at commencement of scheme.
There is a NIL excess on all policies.

Please click here for details.

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, 11 August 2020

ICAEW Calls For Independent Oversight of HMRC’s Charter

The ICAEW has responded to the consultation on draft revisions to HMRC’s Charter, calling for

- more detail behind the aspirations,

- specific performance measurement criteria and

- independent oversight by a body such as the National Audit Office.

HMRC’s Charter sets out the standard of behaviour and values that HMRC aspires to when interacting with customers (taxpayers).

The consultation addresses the proposed changes to the HMRC Charter, including whether the draft wording sets the right standards for HMRC customer service and whether it covers the areas that are most important to taxpayers. It also addresses how HMRC should monitor its performance against the Charter.

The ICAEW’s view is that the accessible format of the draft should be retained, but should be backed up with more detail on how the aspirations translate into actions with specific measurement criteria against each action.

The ICAEW also calls for HMRC to be held more accountable for its performance against the Charter, perhaps through independent review by a body such as the National Audit Office.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Tax Investigation Insurance

Having a Solar Protect Tax Investigation Insurance policy at your disposal means that should you be one of the many 1000's of businesses or individuals that are selected by HMRC each year to look into your tax affairs your own accountant (your tax return agent) can get on and defend you robustly.

You have the peace of mind knowing that your accountant's (your tax return agent) fees will be paid by the insurance without any Excess for you to find.

Tax Investigation Insurance is an insurance policy that will fully reimburse your accountants (your tax return agent) fees up to £100,000 if you are subject to enquiry by or dispute with HMRC.

A Solar Protect policy will enable your Accountant (your tax return agent) to:

Deal with any correspondence from HMRC
Attend any meeting with HMRC
Appeal to the First-tier Tribunal or Upper Tribunal
Having the security of knowing that fees will be met in full will enable your Accountant (your tax return agent) to defend your position robustly
Premiums are Annual Premiums.
Premiums are inclusive of 12% IPT.
Premiums and IPT are due in full in advance / at commencement of scheme.
There is a NIL excess on all policies.

Please click here for details.

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, 5 August 2020

HMRC Accuses GE of $1BN Tax Fraud

In 2012, General Electric’s director of tax policy, Will Morris, received a trophy from HMRC, in recognition for his role in “informing the public debate on large business and tax and condemning tax evasion and abusive tax arrangements with no commercial purpose”.

However, move forward 8 years and HMRC are now accusing GE of a $1BN tax fraud.

The FT reports that the it stems from just before Christmas in 2005 when GE’s tax team convinced HMRC to approve a tax deduction on a controversial transaction that would go on to save the company hundreds of millions of dollars.

The agreement, reached after six months of meetings with HMRC, meant GE could circulate billions of dollars between the US, the UK and Australia without falling foul of Britain’s new anti-arbitrage tax laws, which had come into force just months earlier.

HMRC has claimed that it was deceived by GE during the six months of negotiations in order for it to obtain a “triple dip” tax advantage in all three countries. It has alleged that the US group misled its executives into believing the transaction would be used to invest in an Australian business, when instead, it claims, the money was moved around the group for the purpose of creating tax deductions.

HMRC has asked the High Court to annul the 2005 agreement, which would force GE to pay 15 years of taxes on the transaction, plus interest and fines, totalling more than $1bn.

GE has denied it misled HMRC about the nature of the transaction and hast has countersued in an attempt to force HMRC to drop the case. “GE complies with all applicable tax laws in every country where we do business, and we reject the UK tax authority’s allegations and are vigorously contesting these false claims,” it said in a statement.

The case is expected to turn on what was said in the first meeting between GE and HMRC on April 1 2005. GE claims it was clear about the purpose of the transactions during the meeting.

“The defendants will rely at trial on the evidence of what representations were actually made . . . as opposed to what are now merely inferred by HMRC.”

This will run and run!

Deal with any correspondence from HMRC
Attend any meeting with HMRC
Appeal to the First-tier Tribunal or Upper Tribunal
Having the security of knowing that fees will be met in full will enable your Accountant (your tax return agent) to defend your position robustly
Premiums are Annual Premiums.
Premiums are inclusive of 12% IPT.
Premiums and IPT are due in full in advance / at commencement of scheme.
There is a NIL excess on all policies.

Please click here for details.

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, 4 August 2020

HMRC's APN Collateral Damage

Graham Webber, Tax Director of WTT Consulting, is quoted by Contractor UK referring to the high level of withdrawn APNs:

“Except where the sums are large or there is suspected serious abuse or a particular sector is subject to a targeted campaign, such as contractors [have been], the ‘broad-brush’ approach to compliance [which APNs deliver] is sufficient to satisfy those who oversee them.

The fact that it creates confusion and cost and considerable anxiety for individuals on the wrong end of false or inappropriate APNs, we guess is seen as ‘collateral damage’ by HMRC’s strategists.

In short, unless you are worthy of individual attention from HMRC, the ‘one-size-fits-all’ strategy [of APNs] works most of the time, for most people [from the Revenue’s perspective].”

In other words, HMRC doesn't give a flying fuck!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Tax Investigation Insurance

Having a Solar Protect Tax Investigation Insurance policy at your disposal means that should you be one of the many 1000's of businesses or individuals that are selected by HMRC each year to look into your tax affairs your own accountant (your tax return agent) can get on and defend you robustly.

You have the peace of mind knowing that your accountant's (your tax return agent) fees will be paid by the insurance without any Excess for you to find.

Tax Investigation Insurance is an insurance policy that will fully reimburse your accountants (your tax return agent) fees up to £100,000 if you are subject to enquiry by or dispute with HMRC.

A Solar Protect policy will enable your Accountant (your tax return agent) to:

Deal with any correspondence from HMRC
Attend any meeting with HMRC
Appeal to the First-tier Tribunal or Upper Tribunal
Having the security of knowing that fees will be met in full will enable your Accountant (your tax return agent) to defend your position robustly
Premiums are Annual Premiums.
Premiums are inclusive of 12% IPT.
Premiums and IPT are due in full in advance / at commencement of scheme.
There is a NIL excess on all policies.

Please click here for details.

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"