D Day

Today is deadline day for getting your paper self assessment tax returns in for tax year ended 2013.

Miss the deadline and you may be fined, even if you have no tax to pay.

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"

Tax Coding Errors

Incorrect tax codes mean that over one in three taxpayers who receive employment benefits in kind could be in danger of paying the wrong amount of tax, according to UHY Hacker Young.

The firm's analysis of tax codes sent to clients revealed that around 37% would have resulted in people paying the incorrect amount of tax.

Whilst it is up to the individual taxpayer to check his/her tax code and statement, human nature and the fact that most people are clueless about how the tax system works means that many people take their tax codes and statements at face value. This in turn results in over/underpayments of tax.

Roy Maugham, Partner at UHY Hacker Young's London office, said:

“Mistakes most frequently occur when someone has several sources of income, for example income from an investment as well as a salary and benefits from their employer, or where they have received a large one-off sum such as a dividend payment.

HMRC really needs to make more of an effort to eliminate these errors as generally people trust its calculations and assume that they are paying the correct amount of tax.

If taxpayers do spot a mistake, it is now an even bigger headache to sort out because HMRC has made it harder to challenge unfair tax bills.”

One UHY Hacker Young office saw errors for 20 different taxpayers in just one week relating to benefits provided by employers, such as company cars and private health cover (usually set out on a P11D form).

In most of these cases the code sent by HMRC completely omitted to account for the tax due on the benefits.

The lesson being, check your tax code and tax bill!

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"

Gauke Backs Tax Avoidance

My thanks to a loyal reader who sent me a link to an HMRC/HMT document entitled "Reducing Tax Evasion and Avoidance" (updated 8 October 2013), signed off by David Gauke.

The final paragraph states:

"Tax avoidance means using whatever legal means possible to reduce the amount of money that a company or individual pays in taxes."

In other words David Gauke, HMRC and HMT have no problem with 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"

IR35 Feedback

IT contractors are being invited by HMRC to comment and provide feedback on the new system for IR35 that went live in 2012.

For why?

It seems, according to Contractor UK, that there have been teething problems with the rule's administrative reforms that were introduced.

A framework paper exists for guiding responses, and can be accessed/read in context from the IR35 Forum Minutes (the meeting was held on 1 August 2013. However, it is not clear as to when the forum minutes were actually published).

Good luck!

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"

Taxpayers Are Not Customers!

My thanks to a loyal reader who sent me an article that contains a most marvellous quote by judge Barbara Mosedale, who found that HMRC’s decision wrt taxpayers filing VAT returns online was a breach of the appellants’ human rights and unlawful under EU law.

The judge is quoted by Finance and Tax Tribunals:

"I note in passing that all the reports mentioned below refer to HMRC’s ‘customers’. 

While this is a regrettable misuse of language by HMRC as it implies people have a choice whether to interact with HMRC and that therefore the payment of taxes is voluntary, nevertheless it is clear that references to ‘customers’ are meant to be references to taxpayers. 

Needless to say the payment of taxes is not voluntary despite the misnomer and the submission of VAT returns by VAT registered entities is a legal requirement."

Quite so!

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 Not "Particularly Feeble"

Margaret Hodge, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, was recently quoted in the Independent as saying that:

 “It is a persistent finding of my Committee that HMRC is nowhere near tough enough in cracking down on avoidance and closing loopholes. In this case they appear to have been particularly feeble.”

The specific case that she was referring to relates to a tax exemption relating to certain high interest loans, whereby the interest element is used to reduce corporation tax. This allowance or "loophole" (as per Ms Hodge) was established in the 1980's, in order to make Britain more internationally competitive.

It is estimated that this may cost the government around £500M per annum and, as such, there has been pressure to end the allowance/close the "loophole".

However, as a result of lobbying the government has chosen to continue to allow the exemption/"loophole" to remain.

Make of that what you will.

However, to call HMRC "feeble" over a government decision is simply wrong and misleading!

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"