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.
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HMRC and fishing trips... too right - the HMRC management are indeed "all at sea" and haven't got the first clue about reality!
ReplyDeleteRe above- Thyre not at sea-thyere in the air-flying from Glasgow to Belfast, Salford to London, Liverpool to Glasgow, theyre heads are that far up their backsides staying in hotels etc they have lost touch.
ReplyDeleteA colleague of mine had his balls busted for ordering a taxi to a team meeting by greedy bastards who dont think twice about flying hundreds of miles from Glasgow to wherever, ordering a taxi and booking into a nice hotel. Theyre a fucking laugh.
These "greedy bastards" have bankrupted the T&S budget with their first class open return rail tickets and team building exercises in five star hotels and they now have the cheek to inflict their spreadsheet mania on to the ordinary officers, who are forced to claim at public transport rate only on pain of death. We are thus paying the department for the privilege of working for them. What an utter shambles. At our office there is a rumour that there is to be a whip round so we can buy a gallon of petrol for the pool car.
ReplyDeleteHMRC has it’s own litter of current and former fat cats:
ReplyDelete• Non-executive Chair Mike Clasper is on about £150,000 a year for just three days a week. On a three-year contract, he joined HMRC on August 1st last year from Terra Firma. Formerly chief exec at BAA, he left in 2006 when it was acquired by Spain’s Ferrovial with a pay, pension and share package worth £10 million. He was soon joined by Chief People Officer Cathy Wilcher, also formerly with BAA, now on £190,000 pa.
• Steve Lamey, Director General, Benefits and Credits, is paid in the region of £240,000 pa.
• Chief Finance Officer Stuart Cruickshank was awarded an £88,000 payoff when he left HMRC ‘by mutual agreement’ in March 2008 after just 15 months in post. Later, Treasury Sub- Committee member George Mudie MP (Labour) asked Mike Clasper and now Head of Tax Dave Hartnett: ‘If (Cruickshank) wanted to leave, why was he paid so much?’ No satisfactory answers were forthcoming.
• Former HMRC chief Paul Gray at least had the decency to fall on his sword after the data discs fiasco. But he was soon back on his feet with a payoff amounting to twice his annual salary: £400,000. Within 13
days he was re-employed elsewhere in Whitehall ‘developing civil servants’ skills’.
• With the departure of Paul Gray, civil servant and tax expert Dave Hartnett became acting chair, soon giving way to Mike Clasper from the private sector to become acting chief executive. He gave way again
when Lesley Strathie from the DWP arrived, and is now Permanent Secretary for Tax. If Dave’s journey down the ladder of success continues, you may find him at a desk near you within a few years. Meanwhile he is on about £165,000 pa.
A spokesman for HMRC confirmed that a generic letter was sent out and that “anyone with an offshore bank account was targeted”.
ReplyDeleteHe added that around 30,000 letters went out to holders of accounts obtained from HMRC’s notices to 300 banks. “We apologise if the letter has reached people it doesn’t apply to,” the spokesman said.
“Some checks had been done before they were sent out, but because we had such a huge number to send in such a short timescale, it was more important to get the message out, so obviously some would slip through the net.”
Yes, but who decided that it was a good idea to issue such a letter to bewildered punters in such the short timescale... should we ask Mr Hartnett perhaps?