As the budget looms, KPMG is calling for tax reform; it wants the government to reduce the level of complexity and uncertainty in the tax system.
Good luck with that then!
This Administration does not do "simple".
Tax does have to be taxing.
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"This Administration does not do simple"... couldn't have said it better myself, Ken!
ReplyDeleteJust wait for the new penalty regime to bite... businesses will very shortly find that VAT-errors are no longer solved quickly. Instead they face becoming embroiled in a veritable nightmare of delay, dithering, fudging, procrastination, confrontation, and tribunal hearings to sort out penalties invoked for "tax offences"... a surefire recipe for disaster methinks. One is almost tempted to describe it as Gordon Brown's digitally remastered version of Thatcher's "popular" Poll Tax.
I couldnt have put it better myself Mr Anonymous.
ReplyDeleteThe new penalty regime is the most ill thought out disastrous piece of legislation in the whole history of the Department and will result in untold carnage, not only amongst the trading population, but amongst the poor sods who have to administer it.
It is a sign of how the Inland Revenue have wreaked havoc on the department since the "merger/takeover" that whoever wrote this idiotic legislation has quite obviously not got the first idea of how VAT works. They have taken Inland Revenue concepts of "behaviours" and applied them willy nilly to a tax that is completely different.
It will not work and will end in tears, mark my words
Tax will never be simplified. Mr Average Citizen, who fondly imagines that what he sees in his payslip is what he actually pays, might then begin to grasp the enormous amount he pays indirectly and start to wander just what the hell he gets for it.
ReplyDeleteI could not agree more with Anonymous 2 -as an experienced VAT Officer quite how I am expected to judge the "behaviour" of a limited company relating to errors in transactions that may have taken place several years earlier I just do not know. This new penalty regime is going to become a millstone around the Dept's neck, creating a huge amount of needless bureaucracy - it is going to be a nightmare to administer
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see what happens with all those disputed penalties that go to tribunal. For sure there is big trouble ahead for HMRC in that the works are going to be thoroughly gummed up with droves of disputed cases going to tribunal. I give it 6 months before the whole sorry mess collapses around HMRC's ears... ho, ho, ho!!!
ReplyDelete