HMRC Is Shite
HMRC Is Shite
Dedicated to the taxpayers of Britain, and the employees of Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC), who have to endure the monumental shambles that is HMRC.
Monday 30 November 2009
High Net Worth
The Sunday Times has a slightly "shouty" headline "Taxman targets exiles who keep UK toehold":
"RICH Britons who claim to have moved overseas could find themselves back in the clutches of the taxman if they have hung on to a car, a mobile phone number or even a golf club membership in the UK."
The article goes on to explain that HMRC's "new high net worth unit, which monitors the tax contributions of the country’s wealthiest 5,000 people, will examine the non-residency claims of the super-rich."
All very well maybe, the unit may be new, but the principle of "severing ties" is not new. I well recall my tax studies (when I was young, bright eyed and bushy tailed) whereby we were taught that those who claimed to be exiles had to demonstrate that they had fully left the country (eg by rescinding club memberships).
It seems that the rules haven't changed so much, but that the "alertness" of HMRC (in the face of the reality of Brown's Bankrupt Britain) has.
As to whether this new found "alertness" and "zeal" will benefit the country's finances in the long term or not remains to be seen.
Most certainly those classified as "super rich" will avoid the UK like the plague, as they have no intention of paying 50% tax.
Whilst this may provide some people with a certain schadenfreude, it will not in the long run do our country any good wrt attracting/keeping high achievers. These are the people, who through their energies and ambitions, build businesses that make significant contributions to the nation.
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"
Friday 27 November 2009
HMRC's Massive Extension
In a clear admission of defeat, and as a result of protests by banks over the workload involved in informing on their customers, HMRC have extended their deadline for taxpayers to register their offshore holdings from the end of this month to January 4 2010.
Seemingly the fish are not yet scared enough to jump into HMRC's net.
However, in a reflection of the government's anti bank hysteria, HMRC are pushing the banks to speed up wrt providing information about customers' offshore accounts.
January 4 will be the final deadline to "sign up" for the amnesty on unpaid tax from foreign accounts.
Absolutely the final deadline, honest!
Clearly the top bods in HMRC are sweating, as the promises they made to Brown and Darling about how much money this amnesty would bring in are not being fulfilled.
Failure could mean that the top bods might find themselves out of a job, something that up until now only happens to the lower orders within HMRC!
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"
Seemingly the fish are not yet scared enough to jump into HMRC's net.
However, in a reflection of the government's anti bank hysteria, HMRC are pushing the banks to speed up wrt providing information about customers' offshore accounts.
January 4 will be the final deadline to "sign up" for the amnesty on unpaid tax from foreign accounts.
Absolutely the final deadline, honest!
Clearly the top bods in HMRC are sweating, as the promises they made to Brown and Darling about how much money this amnesty would bring in are not being fulfilled.
Failure could mean that the top bods might find themselves out of a job, something that up until now only happens to the lower orders within HMRC!
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"
Labels:
bank accounts,
banks,
evasion,
HMRC,
offshore,
staff morale,
tax
Thursday 26 November 2009
A Spanking of Laziness
HMRC have got themselves in hot water over a blanket mailshot of around 30,000 letters, re offshore accounts, some of which were sent to the wrong people.
The letter urged the recipient to disclose funds held in their offshore accounts, under the New Disclosure Opportunity (NDO), even though the NDO rules didn't apply.
Accountancy Age quote one tax adviser as saying that the approach "smacks of laziness".
Advisers claim that a simple check of their clients' tax affairs could have revealed that NDO was not applicable to these individuals.
The advisers are missing the point here, HMRC were using this opportunity as a fishing trip.
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"
Labels:
communications,
customer satisfaction,
HMRC,
offshore,
tax
Wednesday 25 November 2009
An Inspector Calls
The Low Incomes Tax Reform Group has called on HMRC to begin house calls, and take steps to eradicate the overpayment of tax among the elderly.
A nice idea, in theory.
However, HMRC simply do not have the resources to do this; hence the fact that local HMRC offices are closing, only to be replaced with call centres.
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"
A nice idea, in theory.
However, HMRC simply do not have the resources to do this; hence the fact that local HMRC offices are closing, only to be replaced with call centres.
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"
Labels:
call centre,
HMRC,
restructuring,
tax
Friday 20 November 2009
A Hopeless Romantic
Gavin Hinks, of Accountancy Age, thinks that Dave Hartnett is a hopeless romantic.
What say you?
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"
Labels:
David Hartnett,
HMRC,
tax
Thursday 19 November 2009
Cry Freedom
Data obtained by the law firm McGrigors shows that 27 people have registered with HMRC, since the Liechtenstein Disclosure Opportunity was opened on September 1.
However, HMRC have refused a similar Freedom of Information Act request wrt how many people have registered for the New Disclosure Opportunity (NDO).
The FT quote HMRC as saying that disclosure would "undermine the facility itself".
Fair enough, disclosing that very few people have taken up the NDO will doubtless encourage a "herd" mentality amongst tax evaders and they will simply follow the "majority" who haven't registered; ie they won't register.
Therefore, even though HMRC have refused to provide the data, it is clear that the refusal to do so indicates that take up of the NDO has been very low.
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"
Labels:
evasion,
Freedom of Information Act,
HMRC,
Liechtenstein,
offshore,
tax
Wednesday 18 November 2009
Futile Arse Covering
Dave Hartnett continues to do the rounds, as he tries to encourage people to declare offshore holdings. In a recent interview with The Telegraph he is quoted:
"My hunch, it is only a hunch, is that a disproportionately large number of your readers will be relatively wealthy, will have hidden some money offshore, and some of them are going to end up in tears because they are just not going to have thought we would be as tough as we’re going to be."
Am I wrong, or is Hartnett beginning to sound a little like Denis Healey (re his speech from the late 70's boasting about "howls of anguish")?
All very well, if Hartnett were a poltician with a political axe to grind. However, he is a civil servant and is not meant to politicise his role. In fact he almost sounds as though he would relish making the middle classes cry.
What does "relatively wealthy" actually mean?
Quite why he has a sudden desire to tear into alleged middle class tax evaders, whilst the "super rich" are able to cut private deals with HMRC seems a tad hypocritical.
The fact is HMRC do not have the resources to hunt down and investigate the alleged hundreds of thousands of middle class tax evaders, that they would have people believe exist.
This is a smoke and mirrors exercise pushed by the dying Labour administration to cover up their mismanagement of the economy and chaotic mismanagement of the merger of Customs and the Inland Revenue, by trying to make people blame the economic meltdown and government bankruptcy on the alleged hundreds and thousands of "tax evaders" who have squirrelled away billions offshore.
Those who have "squirrelled away" significant amounts of money are doubtless wealthy enough to have given up living in the UK long ago, and placed themselves out of reach of Hartnett.
This media campaign is a futile arse covering exercise.
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"
Labels:
amnesty,
David Hartnett,
evasion,
government,
HMRC,
labour,
politicisation,
restructuring,
tax,
tony blair
Tuesday 17 November 2009
HMRC's Definition of ASAP
HMRC's recently launched charter promises to "put mistakes right as soon as we can".
What does "as soon as we can" actually mean?
One month?
No!
Two months?
No!
Six months?
No!
HMRC in fact seem to regard "as soon as we can" as being a "paltry" 13 months!
The figures come from the adjudicator's office, which handles complaints against HMRC.
That is the average time (some hapless self employed taxpayers are in fact having to wait up to 18 months) it now takes HMRC/the adjudicator to communicate to taxpayers the outcome of complaints against HMRC.
The appalling lag in communication appears to be down to a rise in complaints about tax credit awards, and staff shortages.
There is a solution for taxpayers, caught in the bureaucratic mire of HMRC and the adjudicator's orifice, build a Tardis and travel to the future to find out the result of the case.
Would the cost of such a capital investment be tax deductible I wonder?
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"
Labels:
charter,
cock ups,
communications,
complaints,
deadline,
delay,
HMRC,
self employed,
tax
Monday 16 November 2009
I'm A Celebrity Taxman Get Me Out of Here!
It seems that tax supremo, Dave Hartnett, fresh from his "critically acclaimed" appearance on YouTube, has got the taste for celebrity and may well have fantasies about appearing in the jungle with Jordan et al.
That at least would seem to be the conclusion that one could draw from his appearance last week at the ICAEW, where he delivered the ICAEW's 2009 Hardman Lecture.
His subject being "Tax, transparency and trust".
During the lecture he described tax as being "a jungle", and appealed for businesses to allow HMRC staff on secondment to be allowed unfettered access to their financial systems etc.
Aside from the fact that the private sector, and individual, has little reason to trust this government's (and its organs') respect for privacy, respect for freedom, competence wrt data security and competence per se; Hartnett did not exactly endear himself to his audience.
Nichola Ross Martin (a respected tax advisor and, by Hartnett's bitter chip on the shoulder generalisation, a "tax alchemist") observed:
"I found Dave's attitude terribly disappointing".
She noted that he managed to alienate the majority of the attendees.
It seems that his lecture was not designed to win converts, but was merely an excuse to play to the gallery of his political masters in the Number 10 Bunker.
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"
That at least would seem to be the conclusion that one could draw from his appearance last week at the ICAEW, where he delivered the ICAEW's 2009 Hardman Lecture.
His subject being "Tax, transparency and trust".
During the lecture he described tax as being "a jungle", and appealed for businesses to allow HMRC staff on secondment to be allowed unfettered access to their financial systems etc.
Aside from the fact that the private sector, and individual, has little reason to trust this government's (and its organs') respect for privacy, respect for freedom, competence wrt data security and competence per se; Hartnett did not exactly endear himself to his audience.
Nichola Ross Martin (a respected tax advisor and, by Hartnett's bitter chip on the shoulder generalisation, a "tax alchemist") observed:
"I found Dave's attitude terribly disappointing".
She noted that he managed to alienate the majority of the attendees.
It seems that his lecture was not designed to win converts, but was merely an excuse to play to the gallery of his political masters in the Number 10 Bunker.
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"
Labels:
appeal,
David Hartnett,
government,
HMRC,
icaew,
politicisation,
tax
Friday 13 November 2009
Charter Now Published
HMRC's long awaited charter has been published.
I see that HMRC still tries to spin avoidance as being something less than legal:
"We will:...distinguish between legitimately trying to pay the lowest amount and bending the rules through tax avoidance.."
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"
Thursday 12 November 2009
The Dead Duck
It seems that HMRC's New Disclosure Opportunity (NDO) has, so far, not been the rip roaring success that HMRC had forecast; despite Dave Hartnett's foray onto YouTube.
The NDO has not yet attracted the disclosure of significant numbers of undeclared offshore accounts, thus the original forecasts of it generating £500M-£1BN may well be rather wide of the mark.
Andrew Watt, managing director, tax disputes and investigations for accountancy firm Alvarez & Marsal Taxand, said:
"There is definitely a perception in some quarters that the NDO is a bit of a dead duck.
We may be a smaller organisation, but I know some of my colleagues in more well-known firms are finding the same thing."
However, the Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility (LDF) is proving to be more successful; as those who are eligible are transferring their offshore accounts to Liechtenstein and using the LDF, which attracts less harsh HMRC penalties.
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"
Labels:
David Hartnett,
evasion,
HMRC,
Liechtenstein,
offshore,
tax
Wednesday 11 November 2009
Government Declares War On Avoidance
Stephen Timms, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, told parliament the other day:
"This Government will not tolerate tax avoidance or tax evasion in any form, and will act promptly to tackle both of these."
Same old goverment spin of linking avoidance with evasion:
1 Avoidance is legal, taxpayers have every right to arrange their affairs (legally) so as to minimise their payments to the state.
2 What exactly is "avoidance in any form"? The use of ISA's? Tax planning?
Timms has set himself quite a task, I wonder if he is legally, or intellectually, capable of living up to his statement?
I wonder if his fellow MPs, many of whom practice tax avoidance themselves, are in a position to support him?
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"
Tuesday 10 November 2009
Don't Believe The Hype - Financial Secrecy
The Tax Justice Network (registered in Belgium) has recently published a Financial Secrecy Index, which allegedly evaluates the transparency of "tax havens" and their willingness to cooperate with other countries tax operations.
Rather amusingly the UK comes in at number 5 out of 60; ie we are "naughtier" than eg the Cayman Islands.
FYI, Belgium (where TJN is registered) comes in at number 9. Maybe, in the interests of practicing what they preach, they should register themselves in Monaco (number 60)?
Vilifying these places may well give some peculiar emotional satisfaction to the hair shirt wearing members of TJN. However, it serves little practical purpose and is potentially harmful to our own economy.
As I noted earlier on this site:
"A recently published Treasury report into offshore tax havens (British Offshore Financial Centres) highlights the important role played by the Crown Dependencies in funding banks on the UK mainland.
Which is kind of ironic, given that HMRC and the Treasury have been vilifying these places for sometime now describing them as havens for "evil" tax avoiders and tax evaders.
The report notes that the Crown Dependencies make a "significant contribution to the liquidity of the UK market".
Given the parlous state of the Brown's Bankrupt Britain, and the fact that despite owning several banks the government appears to be powerless to increase bank lending (thus kickstarting a recovery), the liquidity provided by these offshore centres is even more vital to our embattled economy.
The report notes that in the second quarter of this year, they provided net funds to banks in the UK of £195BN.
Oh and what makes these offshore centres a magnate for inflows of money, that are then funnelled into the UK?
That would be their low tax rates!"
Anyhoo, following the "logic" of TJN, the British government should be pressing itself to reveal to itself details about financial transactions etc going on within its own borders?
John Christensen, director of the Tax Justice Network's international
secretariat, is quoted on the Accountancy Age site lumping in tax avoidance with fraud, terrorism and all manner of illegal activities:
"But this comes at a price.
Financial secrecy provides cover for all manner of crimes and abusive practices: money laundering, tax evasion and avoidance, insider trading, terrorist financing, embezzlement, Ponzi schemes, illicit financial flows, fraud and much more."
Hype, even by TJN's standards!
These people will not be happy until there is 24 hour state monitoring of our every action (financial, physical, etc), their rationale being "guilty until proven innocent"!
Thus starts the journey to dictatorship.
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"
Monday 9 November 2009
Aspire Renegotiated
HMRC has renegotiated its Aspire contract for IT with service providers Capgemini, Accenture and Fujitsu.
The renegotiated contract (the second time HMRC has done this in 2 years) aims to save £110M per annum by scrapping the legacy systems taken on board by the merger of the Revenue and Customs and Excise, and by shutting down a number of data centres.
The service providers will have exclusivity until 2013. All of HMRC's IT expenditure will now be channelled through Aspire, locking out any other potential suppliers.
CEO of Capgemini Aspire, Nigel Martin is quoted on Crystal Umbrella:
"The new agreement would not have been possible without our track record of reliable service and up to 200 projects delivered on time and within budget for HMRC each and every year."
I wonder if reality will live up to hype?
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"
Friday 6 November 2009
Petition
Patrick Reynolds has set up a petition on the Number 10 Website, calling for HMRC create a similar system:
"There are large numbers of matters of detailed routine in tax matters and in dealings with HMRC that are inefficient and waste a great deal of time. Accountants, tax payers and advisers are well aware of many of them, as are many HMRC staff.
HMRC should be required to have a web site where such matters could be posted. Postings would be restricted to matters of administration and procedures. Postings on individual cases or on taxation policy would not be permitted. HMRC would not be obliged to take account of requests made for changes. They would however be required to explain why aspects of poor administration were allowed to remain unchanged."
I doubt that this will ever come to fruition, as HMRC is not managing to cope with the current levels of enquiries and paperwork etc.
You can sign the petition via this link HMRC Petition.
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"
Labels:
customer satisfaction,
government,
HMRC,
petition,
tax,
website
Thursday 5 November 2009
Too Complex
As noted many times on this site the tax system, as it currently stands, is far too complex.
Michael Izza (CEO of the ICAEW), in an interview with AccountingWEB, says the very same thing:
"Q: In the ICAEW's Enterprise survey, 54% of respondents said UK regulatory and tax environment was 'not very' or 'not at all' business friendly. Employment tax and legislation and business tax changes were all regarded a hindrance. Why do you think businesses responded so negatively and what do you think can be done to improve the situation?
A: This is a constant refrain, and we hear this from businesses of all sizes. We have a great opportunity this year because we're moving into the last few months of this government, there has to be an election no later than June 2010 and this is now the time when business people of all sizes can start to talk to their MPs (or prospective MPs) about the things that bother them and the legislative changes they would like to see.
The institute has issued a manifesto and that was something we were talking to politicians about at the three main party conferences in September and October. One of the themes in it is that we need a more simplified government in this country. An area which I'm sure many of your members will be familiar with is the tax code. The tax code in this country now runs to over 11,200 pages.
There is nobody in HMRC who understands that from A-Z. There is no chartered accountant in this country who understands it from A – Z, it's just become too complicated. We have an opportunity to make something like that more simple, for everyone in business. This is the sort of thing we should be talking to the politicians about now and saying we want to see it changed.
We're at one of those moments in history where because of the economic crisis that we've just experienced and the fact that things are going to be very different going forward, we might be able to make a very significant change in something like that; and that's the sort of thing the institute is going to be asking for."
Never let a "good" crisis go to waste!
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"
Labels:
complexity,
government,
HMRC,
icaew,
tax
Wednesday 4 November 2009
Don't Believe The Hype
As Dave Hartnett bestrides the net like a colossus, warning tax evaders that they may be banged up in jail, and HMRC gets "heavy" with tax avoidance schemes and offshore financial centres it may be worthwhile focusing on how much tax is actually lost as a result of offshore and onshore tax avoidance schemes (legal).
Last year the TUC conducted some research that they said proved that tax avoidance by the 50 largest companies in the FTSE 100 was depriving the Treasury of £11.8BN.
Deloittes decided to analyse the TUC's research, and concluded that it was bollocks. The amount of tax that the Treasury "loses" from companies using avoidance techniques and offshore tax havens is in fact less than £2BN.
In addition to Deloittes rubbishing the TUC claims, a recently published Treasury report into offshore tax havens (British Offshore Financial Centres) highlights the important role played by the Crown Dependencies in funding banks on the UK mainland.
Which is kind of ironic, given that HMRC and the Treasury have been vilifying these places for sometime now describing them as havens for "evil" tax avoiders and tax evaders.
The report notes that the Crown Dependencies make a "significant contribution to the liquidity of the UK market".
Given the parlous state of the Brown's Bankrupt Britain, and the fact that despite owning several banks the government appears to be powerless to increase bank lending (thus kickstarting a recovery), the liquidity provided by these offshore centres is even more vital to our embattled economy.
The report notes that in the second quarter of this year, they provided net funds to banks in the UK of £195BN.
Oh and what makes these offshore centres a magnate for inflows of money, that are then funnelled into the UK?
That would be their low tax rates!
The same low tax rates that our blinkered Treasury is telling them to raise.
Could it be that the Treasury and HMRC are trying to use tax avoidance and smear offshore financial centres, as diversionary tactic to take people's attention away from the Treasury's and HMRC's economic mismanagement and incompetence?
Surely not!
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"
Labels:
avoidance,
banks,
David Hartnett,
evasion,
Gordon Brown,
government,
HMRC,
offshore
Tuesday 3 November 2009
Hartnett On YouTube
Dave Hartnett follows the Prime Minister's successful foray onto YouTube, and warns offshore tax evaders that they may go to jail.
Couldn't someone from HMRC told him to comb his hair first though?
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"
Labels:
communications,
David Hartnett,
evasion,
Gordon Brown,
HMRC,
law,
offshore,
tax
Monday 2 November 2009
Delusions of Infallibility
It seems that there are some in HMRC who have Papal delusions, and believe that they are infallible.
That at least is the conclusion one may draw from the phone conversation reported by Accountancy Age, between a taxpayer (reclassified by HMRC as "deceased") and a member of staff from one of HMRC's call centres.
After persuading HMRC to reinstate her as "living", she went on to ask how the mistake had occurred.
Answer:
"We don't make mistakes, madam."
Alrighty then!
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"
That at least is the conclusion one may draw from the phone conversation reported by Accountancy Age, between a taxpayer (reclassified by HMRC as "deceased") and a member of staff from one of HMRC's call centres.
After persuading HMRC to reinstate her as "living", she went on to ask how the mistake had occurred.
Answer:
"We don't make mistakes, madam."
Alrighty then!
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"
Labels:
call centre,
cock ups,
customer satisfaction,
HMRC,
tax
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