It seems that HMRC have been breaking EU tax law wrt stamp duty charges on cross-border transactions.
The European Court of Justice ruling could open the floodgates on numerous claims against HMRC and, as per Peter Cussons, head of PricewaterhouseCoopers' EU corporate tax division, "is indicative of a store of UK legislative tax issues that are unlawful under EU law."
If the experts in HMRC can't "get it right" wrt understanding the tax system, what hope is there for the rest of us?
When an individual/company breaks the law wrt deliberately under declaring tax, this is called tax evasion. What is it called when HMRC breaks the law wrt overstating tax liabilities?
Tax does have to be taxing.
Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations
What is TAXWISE?
TAXWISE 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 Taxwise
Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.
Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies
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"
What is it called when HMRC breaks the law wrt overstating tax liabilities?
ReplyDeleteA Brownian Motion, perhaps.
Arrogance, corruption and mispheasance in a public office?
ReplyDeleteTrevor Scott
(For persons like myself, "wrt" means with respect to.)
"A Brownian Motion, perhaps."
ReplyDeleteHaha! Very good. Shame Thatcher was in power when the UK law in question was brought in. I guess you just couldn't get the staff even then.
Why am I not surprised at this? I only came across this website while researching other problems within HMRC and I now find it amazing how this countries public services manage to function at all when the people responsible for them seem to get things wrong so often.
ReplyDelete"I now find it amazing how this countries public services manage to function at all when the people responsible for them seem to get things wrong so often."
ReplyDeleteI'd say one of the important words here is "seem". "Almost everything HMRC did today went right" doesn't make a particularly exciting newspaper (or blog) headline.
In this case we're talking about a decision the government, supported by Inland Revenue civil servants, took a while ago, which has now been ruled to have been wrong. However, it appears that the issue is so legally complex and borderline that it's taken 23 years for the ECJ to rule on it. Hardly what I'd call a clear case of incompetence (or malfeasance for that matter).
"Almost everything HMRC did today went right"
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear things have gone well today.
"I'd say one of the important words here is "seem". "Almost everything HMRC did today went right" doesn't make a particularly exciting newspaper (or blog) headline."
ReplyDeleteHow far down the ladder will the praise for getting things right today go?