Datagate III - An Ongoing HMRC Farce

HMRC seems to be developing an addiction to sharing people's private financial details with the wider world.

Not content with the Datagate fiasco of 2007, when a database containing 25 million child benefit records went missing, HMRC have sent by the post the private financial details of up to 50,000 people who claim tax credits to other claimants.

Claimants were sent their annual tax credit award notice, coupled with personal details of other claimants (eg earnings, bank sort codes and the last four digits of the bank account number of other claimants).

HMRC claim that this was a printing error.

By "printing error" do they actually mean IT error?

HMRC also claim that the details mistakenly sent out cannot be used to commit id theft.

This of course is bollocks, any extra details about a person's bank or financial status can make a fraudster's task just a little bit easier.

It seems that, despite numerous warnings and cock ups, HMRC still don't "get" the concept of data security.

I guarantee that the HMRC "investigation" into this will finger some junior member of staff as the official scapegoat.

Does anyone actually trust HMRC anymore with their private data?

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"

Power Corrupts - More Powers On The Way

The formation of a coalition government, one party of which is wedded to the idea of a moral crusade against tax avoidance, coupled with the fact that Britain is broke indicates that instead of cutting back on the powers granted by the last administration to HMRC there is a certainty that more powers will in fact be granted.

Accountancy Age quote Anne Redston, visiting professor at Kings College London:

"There are more powers on the way.

But we should really be putting a cap on powers for the next five years."

You have been warned.

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"

Meltdown II

Yesterday's article about the meltdown going on at HMRC seems to have stirred up a few loyal readers, as there have been a number of "heated" comments posted.

One comment that did catch my eye, in particular, was this one from an anonymous (I assume) member of HMRC.

"Muppets? If the people employed by private companies ie accnt asd book keepers knew what they were doing the "Customer Service" contact centres wouldnt be so inundated with other calls and we could deal with this mess ... caused by our PRIVATE SECTOR IT supplier. But people on here would rather blame the civil servants who have a very limited right to complain back due to impartiality etc."

Disregarding the blame being laid at the door of the taxpayer for not knowing how the tax system works, the very interesting/relevant point being raised is that the blame should be laid at the door of the IT supplier (I will also disregard the anti private sector invective, given that if there were no private sector there would be no taxes to support the public sector).

HMRC have publicly stated that the problem has occurred because the old systems contained several data sets that were not compatible when merged in the new system, and that this is a one off problem that will work its way through.

That does not sound like it to be the IT supplier's fault, but more of a case of lack of testing (which I would assume was the responsibility of HMRC who should have been driving the systems upgrade process)?

However, on the assumption that it is the IT supplier's fault my question is this:

What are HMRC going to do about it?

I assume that the contract with the particular IT supplier has penalty clauses for such issues, on this basis will HMRC be making a claim for restitution?

Were the contract not to have such a clause, then one could argue that HMRC did not negotiate a very good deal on behalf of the taxpayer.

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

Meltdown

The Independent reports that, predictably, the tax coding cock up has led to a surge of phone calls to HMRC which HMRC are simply not able to handle.

"Time after time readers report the frustration of trying to speak to someone at HMRC to put things right about their tax code.

'I spent three weeks trying to get through, beginning at 8 o'clock each morning and then at various times during the day,' says Robert Oliver of Essex. 'I finally managed to get through at 7:50 am on a Friday morning – 10 minutes before the line is officially open.'

'The system seems to be in meltdown with too many tax offices apparently dealing with people's tax affairs at random. resulting in a true cock-up and a lot of worry for people like myself,' says R J Patterson of Cumbria."

The problems will become worse.

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"

Left Hand Right Hand

The FT reports that HMRC has apologised to business owners, after incorrectly issuing demands for immediate repayment of taxes that had been deferred under the government's "time to pay" scheme.

Baker Tilly spotted the error, after some of its clients received automated letters from HMRC threatening distraint.

HMRC admitted that several letters had been sent out in error, and that anyone affected should ignore the notices.

Mike Down, who runs the tax investigation group at Baker Tilly, said:

"I guess it was a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing. But it was particularly frightening for the poor taxpayer when the letter came through."

Anyone else had this problem?

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"

Breaking Point

AccountingWeb argues, quite rightly, that HMRC is close to breaking point.

The question is do we pump more resources in to the current moribund and decaying structure, or do we let it break (as one comment states) and start again?

My view, for what it is worth, is that tax should most certainly be simplified (with a heavy emphasis on shifting revenues from income/cgt etc to VAT).

As to what to do about the structure of HMRC, that requires the appointment at the very least of good quality managers who really can manage change whilst at the same time motivating staff.

Should HMRC be demerged, and the old CE and IR departments be recreated?

Views from people actually working in HMRC would be very welcome.

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"

Deeply Flawed

Following on from calls by ICAS to improve the tax system Vincent Oratore, the new President of the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT), spoke at the Institute's AGM:

"The way tax law is developed and implemented in the UK is deeply flawed. There is not enough expert scrutiny and there is a shortage of parliamentary time for considering the effect that changes to the tax system will have before they are made law.

This year's pre-election Finance Bill, which was rushed through with just three hours of debate in the House of Commons, is a particularly glaring example, but even the usual process often results in tax law which lacks clarity or has unintended consequences.

It is a key aim of the CIOT to achieve a better, more efficient, tax system for all affected by it - taxpayers, their advisers and the authorities who collect tax. This is why I will be campaigning for improvements to the process of developing tax law during my Presidency of the CIOT and will shortly be publishing a paper on this subject, and engaging with politicians inside and outside government to build the widest possible support for reform.

Ministers in both parties in the new government have been sympathetic to reform in this area. Our aim over the next 12 months will be to provoke debate and provide a forum in which all those with an interest in tax law reform can contribute ideas and build consensus for the changes we need to make the tax system fit for the 21st century."

He also delivered an open letter to George Osborne, the new Chancellor, outlining the four key areas that Oratore believes need tackling:

- the tax system lacks a proper design
- the system is too complex and is in need of a dedicated body to aid simplification
- it needs an an improved law making process
- there should be a focus on removing "uncertainty" from the way taxes are managed by the government.

However, as I noted earlier this week, Osborne's priority, rightly or wrongly, will be to reduce the budget deficit as quickly as possible. Sadly, simplifying the tax system will not be his number one priority.

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"

Peterlee – Emerald Court, Bracken Hill Business Park

I have, on occasions, mentioned Mapeley (an offshore property company) and the rather lousy deal that HMRC made with Mapeley.

Here is a wee example of how HMRC, albeit inadvertently, have helped others make a nice little profit.

Source Drivers Jonas Deloitte

Client
Matrix Securities Ltd

Area of Advice
Disposal of a call centre

Vendor
Matrix Securities Ltd

Purchaser
Mapeley

Terms
Sold for £11.1m to show a net initial yield of 6.0%.

Date of Deal
June 2006

Our Role
We arranged the sale of a 61,000 sq ft call centre, let to the Inland Revenue, with a passing rent £717,000 pa.

The syndicate, put together by Matrix who funded the construction of the property on a speculative basis 7 years ago, were thrilled with the outcome - some £1m over expectations and provided them with a very healthy return."

I suppose though that an element of the profits made by all the parties involved, those who are onshore at least, are taken back by HMRC via tax.

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"

Hanging On The Telephone - New Rules

HMRC issued a new statement of practice (SP1/10) for "Business by telephone", 12 April 2010.

This sets out the extent to which taxpayers (and their agents) may notify information and claims to HMRC by telephone.

Here is a link to a hefty 345 page document issued by HMRC re Statements of Practice, you will need to go to page 334 to read SP1/10.

I have reproduced the text of the main body of SP1/10 below. However, I have not included the annexes.

My question to "customers" of HMRC is this, on the assumption that you are able to get through to a call centre, does reality match SP1/10?

SP1/10 - Business by telephone – HMRC Taxes Contact Centres

This Statement of Practice sets out the expanded services which are now available from Taxes Contact Centres which deal with the tax affairs of individuals. It supersedes Statement of Practice 1/05.

Security and confidentiality

HM Revenue & Customs is committed to ensuring the information it receives is accurate and that the privacy of customers' affairs is protected. For the services described in this Statement of Practice:
 Callers will only be able to supply or amend information concerning individuals' tax affairs.
 We will take steps to check the identity of the caller before discussing a customer's tax affairs.
 Callers who fail to satisfy the identity checks will be asked to put their enquiry in writing.
 We will check that we have the customer's consent before we discuss their affairs with their agent or other person calling on their behalf.
 Calls to our Contact Centres will be recorded for training and quality assurance purposes and will be available in case of any disagreement as to what was said.

Services available by telephone from HMRC Contact Centres

The services described below are available to individual customers calling HMRC Taxes Contact Centres about their own direct tax liabilities, and to agents or other persons acting on behalf of the customer providing that we can satisfactorily check the identity of the caller.

The directions by the Commissioners for HMRC under section 118 FA 1998 which provide for these services are at Annex B.

In most cases nothing more than a telephone call will be needed, although the call may lead to further action by HM Revenue & Customs (for example, sending out a revised PAYE coding notice). Where business cannot be completed by telephone we will send customers any forms or other information they need and explain what they need to do next.

Agents and other personal representatives

Some people prefer to ask another person, such as an agent or family member, to deal with their tax affairs for them. We will accept some types of information from agents and other representatives providing that:
 we have been able to check the identity of the agent or representative, and
 we hold evidence that the customer has given their consent for that agent or representative to act on their behalf

Customer consent will usually be required in writing but customers using our Contact Centres can give their verbal consent for a third party to act on their behalf for the purpose of a 'one off' call. Written consent will be required if the customer requires the same person to act on their behalf in any future calls.

We recognise that there will be some occasions when customers cannot be present to give their verbal consent for a third party to act on their behalf. In such instances, we will accept (but not provide) some specific information from the third party on a provisional basis and then contact the customer by post to confirm the information.

Matters that can be dealt with by telephone

The information, claims and requests that may be accepted, from individuals or their representatives, over the telephone are set out at Annex A.

We will also provide certain information we hold about the customer by telephone.

The main exceptions will be:
 personal details such as Name, Address, Date of Birth, National Insurance Number etc.,
 pay and tax details,
 information contained in a Self Assessment Return (if customers require this information, to make the amendments or corrections to their return, we will provide details in writing).

Checking amendments notified by telephone

Amendments to Self Assessment returns made by telephone will be checked in the same way as amendments made in writing and in some cases we may enquire into the amendment.

Time limits

The same time limits apply to claims and amendments made by telephone as when they are made in writing.

Where a claim is made by telephone, it will be treated as made at the time of the call provided all the relevant information can be provided by the customer during that call. And a claim by telephone will, of course, be subject to the same conditions and checks as if it were made on paper.

Where a claim cannot be dealt with by telephone, for example, because the caller does not have all the necessary information, the customer may be asked to make the claim in writing. The written claim must still be made within the usual time limits.
Guidance and assistance

In addition to the services above, Contact Centres will provide the normal range of help and advice by telephone on general tax matters including:
 general questions about income tax and capital gains tax for individuals,
 help with completing returns and other HM Revenue & Customs forms, and
 requests for leaflets, forms, schedules and other HM Revenue & Customs information.


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"

Customer Care

A few days ago I received this exasperated email from a taxpayer, who had valiantly tried to file online without 100% success.

I have edited out certain portions, so as to avoid him/her being identified, but have been given permission to publish it.

Please could someone advise as to the contact details of Linda Maslen?

Thanks.

"Two days ago I tried as a simple tax payer to fill in my return on-line for the first time this year. It should have been the simplest of returns with the minimum of entries, one for my private pension, one for my late wife's pension interest (very small) from three bank accounts and one entry for a charitable contribution.

I should add that I am far from being ignorant when it comes to computers as I worked in XXXXXX for most of my working life.

My first problem was that because I had ticked the box saying I was in receipt of a pension the form went on to ask me how much state pension and other benefits I was receiving.

Since it is zero in both cases I tried to enter zero, the system wouldn't accept zero and after a considerable time and a phone call to the HMRC helpline which remained unanswered after thirty minutes I resorted to my own devices and worked out that the only way round the problem was to enter £1.00 in the state pension and other benefit boxes, money I never received.

The next snag I hit was when it started asking me about unpaid tax in previous years, this time not only would it not accept zero, but it wouldn't accept £1.00 either so I was forced to redial the number of the HMRC help line.

After forty minutes my call was answered by a young lady from HMRC's call centre who was aggressive beyond belief - yes I may have been frustrated at this point but at no point was I rude or aggressive back, I even tried to calm her down, by telling her that my grandmother was born in the call centre's location, but to absolutely no avail.

I was expecting this young lady to talk me through the whole form to ensure that I was filling it in accurately since I was having such difficulty, but the only thing she was interested in was finding out what error messages I was receiving, she flatly ignored any other question relating to anything else on the form.

She did finally sort me out but only after a very unpleasant telephone conversation.

I have to say that I can't really blame her for her attitude since I dread to think the sort of angry people the poor girl has to deal with on a minute by minute basis.

My first point would be that this on-line tax return has not been properly evaluated and yet HMRC are pushing people into using it as the HMRC's preferred way of receiving tax returns.

My second point is regarding the intolerable delays in HMRC call centres answering calls and my third is the very unprofessional service I received when I did get through. On this latter point I don't blame call centre staff, but their managers who are failing to train them properly.

I subsequently went onto the internet and discovered the name of the HMRC director in charge of call centres. I eventually came up with the name Linda Maslen who is described as Director of Contact Services, but try as I might-and believe me I have spent hours trying-I couldn't locate an address or any other contact details for Linda Maslen.

So the bottom line on that one is that it appears to be impossible to contact HMRC's Director of CONTACT Services, mm.

I did discover however that some time back the HMRC call centre - I refuse to call it a service centre - was up for some kind of quality award a fact that Ms Maslen was more than happy to crow about in the various HMRC web sites where she is prominently featured.

It would appear to me that the highly paid executives of HMRC are more than happy to hide behind their lowly paid underlings who are sitting in the front line trenches taken a daily barrage of flak from disgruntled taxpayers while they sit quietly in their plush offices boasting about awards.

I wonder if Linda Maslen actually knows where the call centre is?

Please feel free to add this email to what I am sure is a growing pile of complaints that you are receiving about the lack of service from HMRC. I am at a loss as to what can be done about them so anything you can do to sort out the shambles that is HMRC will be more than welcome.

PS According to HMRC after I had submitted my tax return they owe me less than £2, I shan't hold my breath on expecting to receive it in the near future. In any case my confidence in HMRC's online return is so low that I doubt if this actually reflects a true record of my tax affairs for 2009-2010."

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"

ICAS Calls For Improved Tax System

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) has written to George Osborne, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, calling on him to address a number of serious deficiencies in the UK tax system.

Competitiveness: The United Kingdom needs to have a clear policy on taxation which encourages business to retain and develop UK based operations and headquarters.

Fairness: The tax regime for unincorporated businesses should be brought more closely into line with that for companies. Also, working should always be more profitable than not working, and the highest marginal rate of income tax should be limited to 50%.

Simplicity: Existing complexities should be cut to help ordinary individuals and small businesses self-assess their tax liabilities. Tax credits rules should be aligned more closely with income tax rules, personal tax allowances should be rationalised to reduce the bureaucratic churn of taxing individuals on small incomes and then paying them benefits, and income tax and National Insurance should be merged to simplify administration.

Osborne's priority, rightly or wrongly, will be to reduce the budget deficit as quickly as possible. Sadly, simplifying the tax system will not be his number one priority.

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"

Illogical

Ifaonline reports that independent financial advisers are a tad peeved with HMRC's stance on pension drawdowns, which may lock people in poor value pension schemes for years in order to avoid a 55% tax penalty.

HMRC had previously assured providers that the rule change relating to a rise in retirement age from 50 to 55, wrt cashing in pension policies, in April "wouldn't be an issue".

The rule change means that those aged 50-54 in unsecured pension schemes (USP) face an unauthorised payment charge of 55%, if they transfer to another pension scheme or annuitise.

HMRC was warned months ago that the new rules were "ambiguous", but issued an assurance that it "wasn't an issue".

Now it seems that it is an issue.

Annuity specialist IFA Billy Burrows is quoted:

"An IFA could well have given a client good advice to take a cash lump sum at 50 and now we find the rules are retroactive and they can't transfer. HMRC makes the job of a financial planner very difficult as its actions fly in the face of logic".

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"

Bullying and Not Fit For Purpose - Further Update

A wee while ago I wrote about the case of a self-employed Kent tradesman who was fined £1,400 for mistakenly overclaiming a £2,000 rebate under HMRC's new penalty regime.

HMRC fined him £1,400 after he tried to reclaim £3,000. HMRC calculated that he was in fact owed £1,000, and fined him 70% of the difference between the two sums.

HMRC has now cancelled the fine and repaid the man the £1,000 in tax that they owed him, plus £100 as a goodwill gesture because of "irregularities" in his case.

Well now!

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"

Durham Top of The Tax Tree

Accounting Web cite a report by UHY Hacker Young that taxpayers in Durham experienced the fastest increase in income tax levels, of the top 100 UK towns/cities, in the tax year 2007/08.

The good people of Durham experienced average income tax rises of 18.5% to £4,350 for the tax year 2007/08.

The rise was in part due to a 13.1% growth in average earnings, bringing the regional average to £25K, plus fiscal drag (when the threshold at which the starting point of income tax after personal tax allowances, and also the higher rate tax threshold, are raised at a slower rate than the increase in earnings).

Fiscal drag is more commonly described as a "stealth tax".

Doubtless the residents of Durham will be raising a glass to their good fortune, most especially as they know that taxes are going to rise further this year (as and when we have a government).

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"

Nanny's Back

Good morning loyal readers!

Doubtless many of you have been wondering where this site went to over the last couple of days, indeed I have received a number of worried emails from some of you expressing concerns about the site's unexpected disappearance from cyberspace.

Well, here we are again, I will now relate to you what happened.

Google's (the owner of Blogger) spam bots claimed that Nanny Knows Best was a spam blog and, believing in the principle of shooting first and asking questions later (instead of the more sensible reverse policy), disabled it and asked me to prove it wasn't spam.

Wouldn't it have been more sensible to ask me first if it was spam, and to say if I don't come back in 3 days or so they will then disable the site?

Having deactivated the site without any warning, I was told by Google that I would have to wait several days for them to reactivate it:

"Blogger's spam-prevention robots have detected that your blog has characteristics of a spam blog. (What is a spam blog?) Since you are an actual person reading this, your blog is probably not a spam blog. Automated spam detection is inherently fuzzy and we sincerely apologise for this false positive.

We received your unlock request on 09 May 2010. On behalf of the robots, we apologise for locking your non-spam blog. Please be patient while we take a look at your blog and verify that it is not spam."

I decided that being asked to wait for such a long period of time was not very satisfactory, given that this site has been going for many years and has a real human following etc. Therefore I enlisted your help and asked (via my other sites) for people to drop Google a note prodding them about this.

Oddly enough, for a leading 21st century web company, Google is rather hard to contact directly via email.

Nonetheless I found a number of access points:

press-uk@google.com

- Phone: +44 (0)20-7031-3000
- Fax: +44 (0)20-7031-3001

I also faxed the CEO (Eric Schmidt) in the USA (+1 650-253-0001) about it. Oddly enough, within an hour or so of faxing, the site reappeared as if by magic.

My heartfelt thanks to all of you who wrote in, and helped restore this site.

It is ironic that NKB was shut down, as it campaigns against censorship etc.

To add further irony to the story, my HMRC site (www.hmrcisshite.com) which is also on Google was also temporarily out of action on Sunday. However, it restored itself within a few hours.

However, what was really odd was that my gmail account (another Google product) was disabled by Google on Sunday. They asked me to email them my mobile phone number in order for them to send me a reactivation code.

Is Google trying to tell me something?

Once again many thanks for your support and help during this period of stupidity by Google.
Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

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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"

Nanny Knows Best

Off topic, but I would appreciate help from those of you who also read "Nanny Knows Best".

Google's spam bots claim that Nanny Knows Best is spam and have temporarily disabled it.

I now have to wait several days for them to reactivate it:

"Blogger's spam-prevention robots have detected that your blog has characteristics of a spam blog. (What is a spam blog?) Since you are an actual person reading this, your blog is probably not a spam blog. Automated spam detection is inherently fuzzy and we sincerely apologise for this false positive.

We received your unlock request on 09 May 2010. On behalf of the robots, we apologise for locking your non-spam blog. Please be patient while we take a look at your blog and verify that it is not spam."

If you can find time to drop Google a note prodding them about this, it would be much appreciated.

press-uk@google.com

Phone: +44 (0)20-7031-3000
Fax: +44 (0)20-7031-3001

It is ironic as NKB campaigns against censorship etc, and indeed (oddly enough) my HMRC site was also down yesterday for a few hours plus my Gmail account (which needed me to reactivate it by sending in my mobile phone number for a special code).

Is Google trying to tell me something?

Thanks

Ken

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"

The Election

No matter who wins today's election the ongoing decline in quality of service provided by HMRC will continue. There simply is not the will, nor understanding, in the minds of the politicians to simplify the tax system or to target resources more effectively at HMRC.

The other certaintly is, of course, that taxes will rise.

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"