HMRC's Secret Service

My thanks to a loyal reader who posted the following comment about HMRC's forthcoming Westminster service:

"As an HMRC (IR) member of 25 years I found this both laughable and disgusting, bad enough EXCON giving themselves £30000 bonuses (I got £130) this year they dream uo this load of s***e!

I have made my views clear via the national Hotseat and would urge all other HMRC staff to do the same.

As for invites, nobody I've spoken to knew anything of this, there is nothing on the HMRC Intranet and no Press Briefing, it is a closed shop jolly for the same old faces."

Homer has seriously shot herself in the foot with this.

A service in a Christian church somewhat excludes those who don't believe in god, or who are not Christians (what happened to HMRC's mantra of a diverse and tolerant organisation?).

Why is the event "secret" within HMRC?

I would appreciate seeing the Hotseat responses from Excom to the queries raised by HMRC staff about this.

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"

Friday Question

Has anyone (be it an HMRC staff member, or taxpayer outwith HMRC) actually received an invitation to the infamous and universally derided Westminster service planned for September?

Does anyone know anyone who has received the invite?

Does anyone have a copy of the guest list?

I ask because, despite Homer's assertions that the service is designed to raise morale of HMRC staff, methinks that the attendees will in fact be mainly the "big knobs" of HMRC and their chums from the civil service.

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 Is Ridiculous

Follow this link to a splendid summary of a first tier tax tribunal South v HMRC, involving the late submission of individual tax return and whether there was a reasonable excuse for the late submission of the return.

In brief Mr South was not asked to submit a tax return as had been the case in previous years. He rejected HMRC's £100 late submission penalty on those grounds. HMRC then rejected his rejection on the grounds that there was no evidence confirming that he had not received the return.

Think about the "logic" of that for a moment ladies and gentlemen!

It then gets better, subsequently he did get evidence that he did not receive a tax return.

From whom?

From HMRC itself!

In an HMRC letter of 13 May 2014, which stated a paper return was not issued.

The Tribunal noted that a statement provided by HMRC to the Tribunal was inaccurate (a lie or a mistake?).

The Tribunal went on to note that the result of an appeal dated 20 March 2014 was a piece of nonsense, and showed that the appeal was not properly considered by HMRC.

"It is ridiculous to expect the appellant to produce evidence to show he did not receive the tax return or notice to file."

Based on the above can you guess the outcome of the Tribunal?

Yes, that's right, Mr South won and the £100 penalty has been nixed.

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"

Aspire For Chaos

The Times today warns that HMRC's Aspire contract, the country’s biggest IT contract, is heading for disaster under coalition plans to split it into 100 parts, putting billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money at risk.

Leading industry specialists have told The Times that splintering the £10 billion Aspire contract, which holds the tax records of 50 million Britons, will end in chaos, with higher costs and a substantial risk to the economy.

Methinks that the Aspire contract is already a lost cause, in terms of cost overruns; will splitting it into smaller parts really make things worse than they already are?

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"

Homer Seeks Divine Intervention

As loyal readers know, HMRC and its CEO Lin Homer have been having something of a rough time of it recently.

Under such circumstances it is natural for people to feel despondent and stressed out. Thus Homer has sought divine help, in the form of a VIP service is to be held at Westminster Abbey on 23 September.

Apparently the service will be a vehicle used to recognise HMRC's work collecting revenue. Guests will include staff, civil servants and partners; they will participate in a service that will pay tribute to HMRC.

Apparently, according to HMRC's way of thinking, the service will boost staff morale!

Disregarding the fact that I personally don't believe in god, I would like to make a number of observations:

• In the event god exists, would he/she really want a religious service for a civil service department?

• I assume that some of the staff invited may not themselves believe in god, how then precisely does this help staff morale?

• Despite the fact that, according to the bible, "we should render unto Caesar what is Caesar's etc" (Mark 12:17) the bible wasn't quite pushing for us to worship tax collecting authorities.

•  Is Homer so desperate (or deluded) that she believes that she is on a holy mission?

• God should be kept out of politics and the civil service (irrespective of the fact that we live in a country where the head of state is also head of the church).

Out of interest, has any loyal reader received an invitation to this event?

If so please could he/she drop me a line?

Thanks.

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 Named and Shamed List

HMRC, to much fanfare, has published another one of its named and shamed lists (this being a list of tax evaders).

HMRC publishes details of deliberate tax defaulters - people who have received penalties either for either:

• deliberate errors in their tax returns
• deliberately failing to comply with their tax obligations

The law that allows this is Section 94 Finance Act 2009.
HMRC may publish information about a deliberate tax defaulter where:

• HMRC has carried out an investigation and the person has been charged one or more penalties for deliberate defaults
• those penalties involve tax of more than £25,000

However, their information will not be published if the person earns the maximum reduction of the penalties by fully disclosing details of the defaults.

HMRC will publish sufficient information to identify the deliberate tax defaulter, the penalties imposed for their deliberate defaults and the amount of tax on which those penalties are based.

HMRC publish this information once these penalties are final. A penalty becomes final on either:

• the day after the end of the appeal period if the person does not make an appeal
• the date when an appeal is finally determined
• the date when a contract settlement is made

The law requires that HMRC do not publish any information about the person for more than 12 months from the date HMRC first publish it.

The current list totals around £30M (not exactly an humongous amount), of which £29.7M is accounted for by one company.

It seems an awful lot of work and fanfare for an amount that, in terms of the total tax take of HMRC, is so trivial.

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"