HMRC Delays Left Start-Up £95k Out of Pocket

 

HMRC Delays Left Start-Up £95k Out of Pocket – And Choked Its Growth Stone Dead

Spare a thought (and a stiff drink) for one tech start-up founder who’s just had his company kicked squarely in the bollocks by our old friends at HMRC.

This poor sod poured his heart, soul, and savings into building a promising tech business. Like many innovative startups, he put in a legitimate claim for R&D tax credits (the very incentive the government loves to trumpet as proof they support British innovation). HMRC’s response? Sit on their hands for months on end citing a “workload problem”, leaving the company £95,000 out of pocket.

Ninety-five grand. That’s not loose change. That’s salaries, that’s server costs, that’s marketing budget, that’s the difference between scaling up and slowly suffocating. Because of HMRC’s glacial incompetence, the business is now trapped in funding limbo. Investors are wary, cashflow is strangled, and growth has been throttled.

This isn’t a one-off sob story. It’s happening to startups across the country. HMRC’s R&D tax credit crackdown, combined with their usual bureaucratic lethargy, has turned what should be a lifeline into a noose. They demand mountains of evidence, then take forever to process it, while small businesses bleed out waiting for money that’s rightfully theirs.

Meanwhile, the same department:

• Blows £175 million on flashy AI systems
• Spends £186 million to recover just £44 million on the Loan Charge
• Harasses 93-year-old terminally ill veterans
• Can’t answer the bloody phone

…yet somehow can’t process legitimate tax relief claims for the very companies this country desperately needs to grow.

This founder did everything right. He innovated. He hired people. He followed the rules, yet HMRC’s “workload problem” has rewarded him with near-death for his business. How many other promising tech firms are quietly dying in silence because some jobsworth in Newcastle can’t get their finger out?

The message from this government and its tax collectors is loud and clear: we’ll lecture you about supporting British business, then cripple you with delays, bureaucracy, and cashflow destruction.

Tax does have to be taxing.

But deliberately starving innovative start-ups of £95,000 they’re owed while the department wastes hundreds of millions elsewhere? That’s not taxing, that’s economic vandalism and outright sabotage of British entrepreneurship.

If you’re a founder waiting on an R&D claim, VAT reclaim, or any other repayment chase it hard. Because HMRC sure as hell won’t lose sleep over your business going under.

Amazon “Start-Up Founder Survival Kit” Suggestions
(affiliate links – because HMRC won’t help you)

• Industrial Strength Coffee Maker – you’ll need it during the waiting months
• “HMRC Workload Problem” Punchbag – therapeutic
• Noise-Cancelling Headphones – for when you’re on hold begging for your own money
• “Cashflow Is King” Mug – fill with something stronger than tea
• Heavy-Duty Shredder – for their next meaningless letter

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"

Treasury Ditched Numerical Reasoning Test For DEI

 

After the George Floyd protests, the Treasury ditched its numerical reasoning test for prospective employees because it created an adverse impact on candidate diversity. 

Did HMRC do the same? 

DEI must DIE! 

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 AI Tool

Millions to get faster, easier access to government support with new AI tool

GOV.UK Chat is now available in the GOV.UK app – a new AI tool that lets people ask questions in plain language and get clear, reliable answers instantly. 

GOV.UK Chat – a new AI tool in the GOV.UK app – lets people ask questions in plain language and get clear, reliable answers instantly

Instead of calling a helpline or getting lost searching through 80,000 web pages, people can now access reliable government information faster

Whether it’s parents checking childcare, young people finding apprenticeships or retirees understanding their entitlements, GOV.UK Chat helps people quickly find support and save money

People across the UK can now get quick and easy help to navigate government services and save money – from information on accessing funded childcare to buying a first home and pensions – as a new AI tool launches in the GOV.UK App.

Source gov.uk 

Apparently you can ask it tax questions.

Give it a whirl, and let us know what you think.

I would caution you not to make any tax decisions based on what it tells you though! 

 

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 Latest Student Loan Balls-Up

 

HMRC’s Latest Student Loan Balls-Up: 30,000 Graduates Overcharged Thanks to Taxman’s Glitches

Morning, you poor graduates still paying off your student loans while wondering why the hell you bothered going to university in the first place. Just when you thought HMRC couldn’t cock things up any more spectacularly, they’ve gone and done it again.

The taxman, in partnership with the Student Loans Company, has admitted that over 30,000 graduates have been overcharged on their Plan 2 student loans due to errors in how earnings data was recorded and interest was calculated. Another 41,000 were undercharged, making a grand total of around 71,000 affected borrowers. These cock-ups stretch back years — some were first spotted in 2022 — yet only now are they finally sorting it.

The mistakes involve incorrect income reporting (especially where people had both PAYE and self-assessment income) and technical glitches in how interest rates were applied. Result? Thousands of graduates have been repaying more than they should have for years. HMRC and SLC say they’ll automatically correct the balances and issue refunds where overpayments occurred. No compensation, of course — just “sorry, here’s your money back… eventually.”

This is the same shambolic organisation that:

• Can’t answer the phone without an hour of hold music
• Harasses 93-year-old terminally ill veterans over returns they’ve already filed
• Spends £186 million to recover £44 million on the Loan Charge
• Forces accountants to stop using automation because their own APIs are useless

…yet somehow they’re trusted to accurately track earnings and calculate student loan repayments for hundreds of thousands of young people.

Graduates already face frozen repayment thresholds, massive debt, and the feeling they’ve been sold a pup by the higher education system. Now HMRC quietly admits it’s been taking too much of their money for years. Brilliant.

This isn’t just incompetence — it’s systemic failure. While they blow hundreds of millions on flashy AI systems and hire valuation officers for the mansion tax raid, they can’t even get basic earnings data right for student loan deductions.

Tax does have to be taxing.
But overcharging 30,000 graduates for years on their student loans due to avoidable errors, then shrugging and saying “we’ll fix it eventually”? That’s not taxing — that’s theft by incompetence, plain and simple.

Check your statements, graduates. And if you’ve been overcharged, make sure you get every penny back. Because with HMRC, if you don’t chase it, they’ll happily keep it.

Amazon “Graduate Loan Victim Survival Kit” Suggestions
(affiliate links – because you’re already skint)

• Large Calculator – for checking HMRC’s dodgy maths
• “Overcharged by HMRC” Mug – morning coffee of righteous anger
• Noise-Cancelling Headphones – for when you ring them (good luck)
• Heavy-Duty Shredder – for their next threatening letter
• Strong Drink – you’ve earned it

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 Screen-Scraping Crackdown

 

HMRC's Screen-Scraping Crackdown: Accountants Get Threatened With Access Block Because HMRC's Own Systems Are Still Shite

Greetings, you poor accountants and bookkeepers already drowning in quarterly MTD bollocks, endless client queries, and HMRC's legendary incompetence. Just when you thought the taxman couldn't make your life any more miserable, they've decided to kick you squarely in the automation.

HMRC has ramped up its war on screen-scraping and browser automation tools that accountants have been using to actually get work done. In an updated policy paper, they've made it crystal clear: using any form of screen scraping, robotic process automation, or browser automation to access client data via agent accounts is prohibited. Get caught? They’ll block your entire Agent Services Account (ASA), meaning you lose access to all your clients’ HMRC data in one fell swoop.

Why are accountants resorting to these tools in the first place? Because HMRC’s own digital services are still a complete and utter shambles. Their APIs are limited, clunky, unreliable, and don’t cover everything accountants need to do efficiently for clients. So firms turned to automation to plug the massive gaps left by HMRC’s half-arsed “digital transformation”. Now HMRC is punishing them for it.

This is classic HMRC hypocrisy on steroids:

• They can’t build proper, reliable APIs that actually work for the profession.
• They spend £175 million on flashy AI from Quantexa while basic agent access remains painful.
• They force everyone into Making Tax Digital and quarterly reporting.
• Then they throw their toys out of the pram when accountants find clever ways to work around the department’s own incompetence.

Accountants aren’t doing this for fun — they’re doing it to save time, reduce errors, and actually provide a decent service to clients. Now they face the very real risk of suddenly being locked out of the system they rely on daily. Brilliant.

This crackdown is yet another example of HMRC’s “do as I say, not as I do” attitude. They demand flawless digital compliance from everyone else while their own systems remain stuck somewhere between 2005 and total chaos.

Tax does have to be taxing.
But deliberately making accountants’ lives harder because you can’t be arsed to build proper tools, then threatening to lock them out when they improvise? That’s not taxing — that’s petty, obstructive, and typical HMRC bullying.

Sort your own house out before you start smashing everyone else’s tools.

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"

Money Laundering Red Flag

 

The question here is it only the cab company that looks dodgy, or the council as well?

Over to you HMRC!

Source. 

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"