Dual Standards

The FT reports that Mike Fleming (partner at Straughans Chartered Accountants and Tax Advisers), an ex HMRC tax investigator no less, is a tad unimpressed with his old employer.

For why?

The  recent HMRC cock up, caused by a paper shortage, that mean that half a million people had to be given an extended deadline 29 September to make their second instalment (D2) of the annual tax payment.

Mr Fleming notes that the 9M other UK residents who complete a tax return, who have not been given this extended deadline, will not enjoy the advantage of being able to accrue extra interest on their bank accounts


Mr Fleming, further puts the boot in to his old employers, and noted that not only does this create "an unfair dual standard", it also raises questions about the competency of HMRC, reflecting "widespread" systems and administrative problems at the agency.

Quite!

Tax does have to be taxing.

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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"

HMRC Staff Survey - PCS Call For Boycott

My thanks to a loyal reader who posted this comment re my recent article about the HMRC staff survey

Rather worryingly it seems that PCS are advising people not to complete the survey.

"FYI Ken,

PCS are recommending that the survey NOT be completed.

As a PCS member I'm not sure what I will do. "


As you know I am not an HMRC member of staff, nor a member of PCS. Therefore I may well be missing some nuance. However, I can see no possible rationale for PCS to be advising such a course of action.

The survey, if filled in honestly, represents an opportunity for staff to publicly tell management and the government "it how it is".

In the event that there is a boycott of the survey by a large number of staff, then the result will be skewed and not representative.

HMRC will then either come out with a favourable result, or simply discredit any unfavourable result by saying that many staff did not complete the survey and as such many staff must be assumed to be content with how things are.

The fact that PCS don't seem to see the above as a likely outcome is worrying:

1 Either they are in cahoots with HMRC management, and are trying to discredit the survey, or

2 They believe that the results will be fixed, in which case they should come clean and go public with their concerns about the honesty of the survey.

As to blindly following what the union tells you to do, don't!

It is up to them to publicly explain why not completing the survey is in the interests of the staff that they claim to represent.

Please could PCS post a coherent rationale (that stands up to scrutiny), on this site, for boycotting the survey?


Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
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Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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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"

Destined To Fail

Despite all the public pronouncements by HMRC that improvements are on schedule, and that targets etc will be met, it appears that one particular target will not be met.

Anything important?

Errrmm, yes actually...Universal Credit, the flagship of the government's plans to simplify the benefits system.

George Osborne has been warned that it will not be ready in time for its official launch deadline of 2013.

For why?

HMRC have fessed up privately to ministers that the deadline will be missed.

HMRC and The Internet

Acas have published a report (Workplaces and Social Networking) about HMRC's online and social media strategy.

It looked at how BT and HRMC tackles the issues relating to the net, and what staff may/may not do during work time. Interviews were carried out with an HMRC HR adviser, the head of HMRC’s digital strategy and a trade union representative involved in data security issues in May 2011. Oddly enough though no "ordinary" members of staff were interviewed.

Here are a few extracts relating to HMRC:

"Only around 50% of employees at HMRC currently have internet access, although this is about to change, as the organisation is in the process of rolling out internet access to all employees as part of the process of centralising the HR functions of civil service departments. 

HMRC also has a policy on acceptable use of the internet, which, as with the BT policy, blocks certain websites. 

HMRC employees are not prohibited from using the internet, but the policy states that they should do this in their own time, i.e. during breaks. HMRC, as an organisation that holds a large amount of sensitive data about the population, needs to have extremely tight data security procedures in place, and from this perspective, it feels that it needs to control the types of sites that employees can access from the organisation’s IT system.


HMRC said that it did not consider employees’ social media profiles during 

HMRC has a forum in place, where employees can write about issues that are bothering them.and employees are permitted to post comments on it during work time. The organisation keeps an eye on the threads and will respond with explanation or clarification where it deems necessary.

HMRC is still developing its digital engagement strategy and will decide on the precise details at some point in the future. The priority for the organisation at this stage was to put into place guidance for social networking sites that is clear and understandable to employees.

The fact that internet access was being rolled out to all employees was a catalyst for developing guidance on the use of social networking sites, and the issue was further brought to prominence by a couple of high-profile incidents picked up by the media of HMRC employees using social networking sites.

'We had concerns within HR about social media and how staff were using it. We’ve had misconduct cases involving social media, although we’ve handled it quite well. We decided in HR that we needed to do something.'


HMRC, the policy was developed in conjunction with the trade unions. In addition, before the policy was finalised, it was posted up internally in bulletin boards for employees to see and comment upon.
 
HMRC feels that this is the right way to go about policy formulation, as it will help to ensure that employees can have an input into the policy, which in turn will increase overall acceptance and awareness. 

HRMC obtained useful feedback from this exercise, particularly on the structure and phrasing/language used. 

HMRC also carried out an internal survey to check employees’ knowledge about social networking sites, in order to help it to pitch the guidance correctly.


'Essentially, what we did was to bring existing Conduct policies together. The only thing that was new was a policy to discourage people from associating HMRC privately with their social media – better not to do it.

The rest of it was essentially conduct, communication and security policy. Essentially, we’re saying that you should behave online as you do offline. We’ve just reminded people about existing policy and looked at it in the light of social media.'


HMRC does not give any specific training to line managers on how they should handle these
issues, largely because most of the issues that are likely to arise would come under the organisation’s conduct policy, on which managers do receive training.

'Managers can’t be expected to know everything about everything, but I would hope that if there was a problem to do with social networking, the manager would look into what this meant. The issue would basically be to do with the disciplinary code.' Trade union representative, HMRC


HMRC does not look at the Facebook or other social networking sites of its employees as a matter of course (Ken says "errmm it looks at this one though;)"), as it does not want to prescribe how employees should behave in their private life. For the organisation, the main and overarching
issue is that employees do not behave in such a way as to bring the organisation into disrepute. Its guidance recommends that employees do not disclose their status as an HMRC employee on any social media site and that they should be careful about disclosing information about their colleagues. HMRC initially thought about specifying personal sites in their guidance, but after discussions with trade unions, decided not to.

'When we were drawing up our guidance, we thought about including general good practice on the use of private personal sites. It’s quite easy to stray into being prescriptive. However, trade unions had a different point of view and it’s of value to have different views around to get an appropriate balance.' HR adviser, HMRC

'You have to start from a position of trust – people need to be trusted not to be stupid with it. We felt very strongly that HMRC couldn’t dictate to employees what they did in their private lives. There has to be that glass wall between the two. Equally, however, it would be wrong for an employee to put privileged information on their Facebook site. We have access to private data in our jobs and we have to respect that when on our social networking sites.'

'If a person rang in sick and then changed their status on Facebook to at Alton Towers, that would obviously be an issue, but we haven’t seen anything like that. Trade union representative, HMRC"

My question to my loyal readers (specifically HMRC staff) is simple, does this reflect reality?


Tax does have to be taxing.

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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"

Happy Staff Survey Day!

Today is the day the HMRC staff survey commences.

Hoozah!


By happenstance I came across this example of how not to treat one's staff, read the details on the Channel 4 News website:

"...The claim comes from an officer who, as Channel 4 News has learned, received £790,000 from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) earlier this year in an out-of-court settlement after suing them for, among other things, failing to keep him safe from psychiatric harm....

A marked feature of this case is the struggle which he experienced when trying to get the help he needed from Customs. It's been claimed HMRC was persistently uncooperative in efforts to get Mike the necessary treatment he needed."

As per a request made by a loyal reader, are there any deliberately misleading questions that could give a false positive?

Thanks.

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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"

HMRC Bullshit

Accountancy Age reports that HMRC have reduced their target for checking business records down from 50,000 to 20,000.

However, for reasons best known to HMRC, they are describing this reduced target as an "extension" of the scheme.

For good measure they also claim that the record checks are in the businesses best interests:

HMRC's director of local compliance, Richard Summersgill, said:

"Good record-keeping helps businesses pay the right amount of tax at the right time, thereby potentially avoiding interest and penalties.

Adequate records give businesses a clear idea of their trading position and profitability, allowing them to make business decisions and adjustments to ensure survival and success. 

And where a check has shown a business keeps adequate records, it gives HMRC a greater degree of assurance as to the likely accuracy of its tax returns."

Bullshit from start to finish!

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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"

Beaker's Terrific Wheeze III - Weasel Words

I am pleased to see that it is not just this site, and its loyal readers, who can see that Danny "Beaker" Alexander was bullshitting when he claimed that HMRC would recruit an extra 2,000 or so tax inspectors for the new Effluent....sorry...I mean Affluent Unit.

None other than the FT has also pointed out that he talking bollocks, and that the job cuts (from 66,000 to 56,000 by 2015) in HMRC will continue.

Unsurprisingly, I am still waiting for him to answer my Tweet to him about it...I won't hold my breath!

Here is the FT article in full:

"Conference platforms can turn even quite decent ministers into smoke-and-mirrors artistes. Take those press reports from the Lib Dem conference in Birmingham about HM Revenue & Customs recruiting thousands of staff to launch a crackdown on the rich. “Extra inspectors recruited to target wealthy tax avoiders,” proclaimed the Independent. Under the banner “Soak the Rich!” the Daily Mail reported that Treasury chief secretary Danny Alexander was “recruiting a team of 2,250 tax inspectors to launch raids on the wealthy”. I trust Notebook readers were not taken in.

Well you didn’t think that the auburn-haired Mr Alexander meant that extra people were being recruited did you? 

Surely you were savvy enough to spot the weasel words? 

What the minister said was that “an additional 2,250 staff will move into new anti-evasion and avoidance jobs”. 

In plain English, existing HMRC staff will move from their present jobs to work on tax evasion by the rich in a new “affluent” unit. Mr Alexander told the Lib Dems that “this month over 1,000 of these jobs are being advertised”. And so they are – all of them internally. (No, I wouldn’t dream of describing him as Duplicitous Danny. He is just dexterous with words.) Meanwhile, the cull of HMRC staff from the present 66,000 to 56,000 in 2014/15 continues. 

HMRC insiders are cynical about the whole exercise. “It takes four years to train a tax inspector,” says one. “You can’t just whistle ’em up. And you’d need the best ones – senior civil servants – to tackle rich people who hire top accountants to advise them how to avoid tax legally. 

“The risk is that by taking staff away from chasing ordinary people, who provide the bulk of tax revenue, the Exchequer will lose out. It’ll be interesting to see if the numbers will really add up.” 

HMRC’s new “affluent unit”, whose old staffers will concentrate on the 350,000 people earning more than £150,000, has been told to bring in an extra £560m for the Exchequer by 2014/15. That will be election year. The punters will not want any tricksy interpretations of the word “extra”."

Tax does have to be taxing.

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Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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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"

Hartnett Changes Jobs

Dave "Jack" Hartnett is guest editor of Taxation today.

Here is an extract of his editorial:

"..The past 12 months have not been easy and we are disappointed that our service on the phone and by post, compounded by various issues with the PAYE system, has caused such difficulties for tax advisers, their clients and our customers generally. But there have also been significant achievements. 

The groundbreaking agreement with Switzerland and the continuing development of the Liechtenstein disclosure facility will secure for the Exchequer billions of pounds of unpaid tax.
Our ‘Connect’ risk engine is making it much easier to identify those who are dishonest in their dealings with us.

It has improved the targeting of taxpayers who do not comply with their obligations so that we are challenging fewer taxpayers whose affairs are in good order.

Our post turnaround times are improving this year, as is our service on the telephone. There is much more we need to do here, but we are heading in the right direction....

The summer of 2010 was a low-water mark for HMRC in terms of customer service and the public perception of what we do and how we do it. We are determined to improve. My colleagues in HMRC all come to work to do a good job and we have been improving the tools available to them..."

Why not pop over to Taxation and drop him a note?


Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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"

Sir Humphrey Speaks UPDATED

Last week our old chum Dave "Jack" Hartnett appeared before the Treasury Sub-Committee and spoke about the "tax gap" (the difference between what the government expects to receive and actually does receive).

For reasons best know to HMRC the UK (unlike other countries) includes a figure for avoidance within the tax gap estimate.

Aside from the fact (cue the usual posts about me talking about straw men) that avoidance is perfectly legal and logical, actually estimating something that is an unknown is somewhat "problematic".

Even "Jack" admitted as such:

"..slightly contentious issue ... what might the intention of Parliament be?"

Anyhoo, ignoring the fact that the figure is wrong (as it contains unknowns) last year's tax gap was allegedly £42BN...or not, as the case may be!

Andrew Tyrie attempted to extract a sensible answer from Jack about the difference between "closing" and "reducing" the tax gap.

Jack, being a true civil servant, spoke in gobbledygook; saying that there had been much debate as to whether ‘close’ meant ‘close so that the door is aligned with the frame’ or ‘the process of closing’.
‘It is the second of those that we’re doing’.

All clear now?

No?

Neither was Tyrie who said:

"Classic Sir Humphrey reply".

Tyrie then moved onto the emotive subject of avoidance, and quite rightly asked:

"Is it right or wrong that individuals and companies should structure their arrangements to minimise tax?"

Hartnett said the answer depended on whether the question was a legal or a moral one. However, he did reluctantly admit that "avoidance is not illegal".

Tyrie rounded off by noting, on the subject of avoidance, that people were being stigmatised "doing something perfectly logical, reasonable and inevitable".

Quite!

Herein lies the problem, as the above exchanges illustrate, HMRC and Jack have their own agenda. That is all very well if they were a political party, but not acceptable for a government agency.

Watch it here Committee

Tax does have to be taxing.

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HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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"

Beaker's Terrific Wheeze II - The Reality Behind the Bullshit

My thanks to the loyal reader who has succinctly, and eloquently, summed up the reality behind Danny "Beaker" Alexander's bullshit statement about recruiting 2,000 extra tax inspectors.

Suffice to say, Beaker is talking bollocks; in fact his "plan" will, cost the taxpayer more and make service levels worse.

I wonder if Georgie Porgie knows?

Here is the reality behing the bullshit:


"In the words of Jim Royal "My arse", all that's happening is transfers to enforcement and compliance. 

This will be mainly from processing, and they are going to recruit fixed term appointments to plug the gap until the NPS system is running without the glitches then dump them.

So if you think it's a long time to get a reply from HMRC now just wait until the new bods start (well they will need some training won't they)."

Note I am still waiting fro Beaker to answer my Tweet yesterday asking him where the money is coming from. 

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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"

Beaker's Terrific Wheeze

I am gemused to see that Danny "Beaker" Alexander (Chief Secretary to the Treasury) has come up with a terrific "wheeze", and announced the recruitment of 2,000 new tax inspectors.

Ermmm..now forgive me if I am a little confused, but are HMRC not in the process of downsizing and laying off tax inspectors?

How much will this cost, and where in the HMRC budget is this coming from?

Has no one told Beaker about the downsizing of HMRC, or does this mean that the policy has been reversed?

Answers on a postcard to "Beaker C/O HMT".

FYI, I tweeted Beaker asking where the money is coming from to pay for it..if he answers I will update you.

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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"

Twylah

I have just joined Twylah (currently running in Beta mode).

Twylah organises my tweets into the topics that I tweet about most, followers are directed to an optimised landing page that makes tweets easier to read.

Check out my Twylah page:




Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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"

Ground Hog Day

On 7th September HMRC's Chairman, Mike Clasper, hosted a meeting at 100 Parliament Street to discuss HMRC service delivery.

The meeting had been requested by a number of professional bodies/charities (one could, for want of a better word, call them "stakeholders") including:

- the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales,
- the Chartered Institute of Taxation,
- the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland,
- the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants,
- the Association of Accounting Technicians,
- the Association of Taxation Technicians and the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group,
- Tax Aid
- TaxHelp for Older People.

Why was the meeting called?

The stakeholders wanted to follow through on the recommendation of the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee’s that HMRC should work closely with the professional bodies, tax charities and businesses to improve the end‐to‐end experience of dealing with HMRC.

In addition to Clasper, HMRC sent along some senior managers.

Despite the fact that HMRC are happy that statistics show that in recent months there has been a significant improvement in overall post handling times..really???..HMRC recognise that this improvement is not consistently reflected in the actual experience of taxpayers and agents.

In other words, from the perspective of the stakeholders the statistics are wrong or are (shall we say) measuring the wrong variables.

Anyhoo, on the 14th of September HMRC issued a joint statement which outlines the agreement made as a result of the meeting.

The whole area of post handling and processing will now be looked at in depth, to understand how far the recent improvements are reflected in the actual experience of taxpayers and agents. Additionally, the reasons for the experience and perception of HMRC’s customers being different from that of HMRC managers will also be examined. 

Quote:

"It was agreed that as a first stage, work should be taken forward quickly and on three fronts:

• Post processing and handling should be looked at in detail to establish where problems still exist and how they can be resolved (and HMRC’s performance measures reviewed where necessary to ensure that they are credible and effective). This work will be complemented by a review of the following processes where it is believed improvements can be made: non Self Assessment repayment claims, automated PAYE coding notices and practical issues relating to deceased estates.

• A number of agents and charity representatives will spend time with HMRC’s front line service delivery teams to look at processes in detail from a customer perspective and make recommendations as appropriate.

• HMRC will carry out structured visits to the offices of a number of practitioners and charities to gain an in depth understanding of service delivery as seen from a customer perspective.

The intention is to pursue this initiative within a very stringent timeframe to obtain tangible fast track results with a view to facilitating quick resolution in a number of areas. The joint initiative will commence on 3 October and progress on the initial three work streams will be reviewed by 30 November.

Mike Clasper said:

'Tax agents along with the charity and voluntary sector are vitally important customer and stakeholder groups for HMRC and I welcome their offer to work with us so we can better understand how to improve. We know that they and their clients are seriously impacted when we get things wrong and we are determined to deliver a better service.

We need to get a better understanding of the interaction of our customers and stakeholders with HMRC and of their experiences in resolving tax issues. Working with agent colleagues inside and outside HMRC will provide that knowledge and lead to better services for all of our customers.'
 
The professional bodies and tax charities said:

'We and HMRC are working very closely together to try to resolve a number of service delivery issues. This exercise is emphatically not a ‘talking shop’ and where appropriate we intend to make public the results and the action to be taken from the work streams we have embarked on.'"


The publication of the joint statement gave rise to an optimistic statement from Michael Izza (CEO of the ICAEW) on his blog:

"HMRC has made similar promises in the past to tackle service issues yet have failed to deliver. 

I believe this time will be different. 

Thanks in no small part to the role played by our Tax Faculty and in particular, Paul Aplin, chair of its technical committee, we now have a partnership with HMRC and a very public commitment from the very top to a way forward which will help turn things around."

I do not wish to discredit Michael's viewpoint and optimism.

However, having run this site for many years I have a feeling of deja vu wrt the promises being made and a feeling that we are now in the endgame wrt the current structure/leadership of HMRC.

Reading between the lines of the statement (re the comments about perceptions) I get the feeling that HMRC do not want to believe that there is a service issue, and that this will be used to try to discredit "stakeholder" perceptions of poor service.


Additionally, from my cynical ("tired old eyes") perspective, even if the promises are genuine given the state of HMRC I don't see that they will/can be fulfilled.

Given that I am so cynical, and therefore partisan in my viewpoint, I would really value hearing the viewpoints of my loyal readers (especially those who work within HMRC) as to the likelihood of this actually delivering what it promises to deliver.

BTW, whatever happened to the Charter?

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
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Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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"

Staff Survey

I have been advised by a loyal reader that, contrary to what I have stated about the staff survey beginning today (16th) it in fact starts on the 26th.

Mea Culpa!

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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"

Hearts and Minds III Psy Ops

I see that HMRC are applying the "hard cop/soft cop" approach wrt their ongoing Psy Ops in the build up towards the commencement of the annual staff survey.

On the "soft cop" side they have, as we have seen from my earlier articles, been showing "concern" for personnel issues eg:

- Awards ceremonies and nominations,
- "Campus" events to show "engagement" (with sweet wrappers!)
- Almost weekly reviews of the success stories associated with the engagement activities,
- Caring approaches to HSW and DDA/EQA issues, training for managers (mandatory) better guidance for managers etc.

Not forgetting the in house reminder that staff should still send emails to the Grande Dame (HMRC cannot tell staff that she is leaving until at least the survey is completed).

On the "hard cop" side HMRC have announced various office closures/relocations eg:

- 2 Broadway, Birmingham
- New Enterprise House, Chadwell Heath
- Centurion House, Dover
- Dobson House, Newcastle
- 22 Kingsway, London
- Hollinswood House, Telford

Additionally, HMRC have also played hard ball with PCS (could this be a double bluff perhaps, to shore up PCS's reputation as an "independent" force standing up for the rights of the workers?) as this account of the rather bizarre meeting on 1 September between PCS and the head of HMRC's DMTC shows.

The purpose of such "schizophrenic" tactics is to sow confusion and fear, those who are fearful and confused are more easily manipulated!

You have been warned!

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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"

Hearts and Minds II Psy Ops

As the start of the HMRC staff survey is not far away, it is worthwhile (I think anyway) highlighting a comment made by a loyal reader about yesterday's article about how HMRC management are conducting a "hearts and minds" operation designed to try to influence the results of the survey.

The loyal reader also notes that PCS may well be complicit in the "hearts and minds" strategy (PCS's vested interest, wrt the status quo, has been alluded to by other loyal readers over the previous months).

The key point being that the survey results are very important, Excom cannot afford to allow HMRC to rank 103rd again.

However, there is insufficient time for any serious and genuine changes/improvements in management/structure of HMRC to have a meaningful effect on efficiency and staff moral (if such changes/improvements really are being made). Therefore short term "mood enhancers", such as those described yesterday and in the comment below, are being used.

Don't let them fool you!

Here is the comment in full:

"The strategy has been subtle and big questions raised about PCS complicity, i.e. suggesting a boycott of the vote and also their "campaigning" "effort".

Never have such smoke and mirror and snake oil salesman tactics been used with such gusto:-

Awards ceremonies and nominations,

"Campus" events to show "engagement" (with sweet wrappers!)

Almost weekly reviews of the success stories associated with the engagement activities,

Caring approaches to HSW and DDA/EQA issues, training for managers (mandatory) better guidance for managers, statements from CEO downwards about how seriously these issues will be dealt with [is all this an admission it wasn't being done before? - you bet!].

I am on the optimistic side of the fence, and I know the public is beginning to see through the cloak of lies about pensions, I am confident that HMRC staff will use their vote wisely and freely despite messages to the contrary.

The posts being advertised are a double issue, they arise from the money guaranteed by the treasury in return for quite an about turn (cue creative accounting methods?) and also lucky timing to make the world look better through rose tints. Well frankly even a pile of dog excrement would be an improvement on the current environment.

The answer may be as has been referred to before, reduce the pot of departments so instead of being 103rd out of 103 (last) you become 101st out of 102 (massive improvement in results).

LOL - vote wisely colleagues..."


Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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"

Hearts and Minds

As my loyal readers know, it is soon time (the 26th of September to be precise) for the annual HMRC survey to begin.

As to when the other civil service surveys begin remains to be seen. However, if they begin later than HMRC's, then we can conclude that HMRC is still classified as "special".

Anyhoo, the powers that be within HMRC are keen to ensure that the results from this year's survey are markedly different from last year's (ie that HMRC don't rank 103rd in the list of civil service departments).

How are the powers that be ensuring that this year's results will be markedly better?

Well, aside from firing off some distracting chaff about Lesley Strathie coming back to her job, they have also been busy waging a "hearts and minds" campaign on the "shop floor".

My thanks to a loyal reader who posted a neat synopsis of the "hearts and minds" campaign being waged:

"I would ask HMRC staffers to point out to their less aware colleagues the following

Have you had more meetings with "senior" managers in the last two week? ( by senior I mean at least SO or above if you are in operations)

Have you been subjected to "success" stories in a hastily cobbled together in some form of e-mail attachment with "real" experiences if staff and how wonderful the organisation is at listening?

Have you suddenly had local management being ever so caring and empathising with "people issues" recently?

Have you noticed if uncomfortable issues are suddenly important and are considered "serious" after having been ignored for months (years) on end?

If you have noticed one, some or any of the above, welcome to People Survey week. 

I have noticed all of the above. 

It is a desperate last throw of the dice and I am uncomfortable with having to do it as I know the structure has not altered yet.

In my opinion, this is an attempt to influence the survey results in a last mad dash to provide upbeat stories and feel good news. 

It is no coincidence, again it is my own opinion, that the announcement of 1100 jobs in compliance happened last week. Have a few thousand staff in operations chasing those jobs and distract them from the reality around. 

This is blood and circuses. 

The Romans were an astute lot to give the "games" to the mob to stop them rising up. HMRCs blood and circuses are designed to have the same effect.

Sad thing is, I can see it working in the people I manage."

In my view the only way there will be any chance of a positive improvement within HMRC, is if the staff survey is filled in by as many people as possible as honestly as possible; and that the results are then not manipulated/distorted by those with a vested interest in maintaining their fiefdoms.

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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"

Curiouser and Curiouser II

My thanks to the loyal reader who posted the text of Lesley Strathie's News Board message to the troops, telling them all to keep sending her emails (see below).

It seems The Grande Dame wrote it in a hurry (as there is a grammatical error - well spotted by the loyal reader!).

The underlying "message" within the message is that she wants you to believe that she is coming back.

She is not coming back.

As to the precise date of the announcement of her departure, GOD knows.

The Kremlinologists amongst my loyal readers may want to think about that.

The text:

 "As I explained my message (sic) to you on 19 July, whilst I am out of the office, Mike Clasper, HMRCs non-executive chairman, will provide leadership and direction to the Department on my behalf as Chief Executive. Dave Hartnett, Permanent Secretary for Tax, has taken on the role of Principal Accounting Officer (PAO) on an interim basis, and will be accountable for the Department's performance and the money we collect and spend.

Although the work is being managed differently for a while, emails should continue to be directed to me, and my Office will either action, or re-allocate to Dave Hartnett or Mike Clasper accordingly. 

This is important for ensuring there is a clear handover and audit trail for my return.

I very much look forward to being back with you all in the autumn."

Finished with a flourish of a photocopied signature of DLS, dated 31 August 2011.

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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"

Curiouser and Curiouser

My thanks to a loyal reader who posted a comment (see below) about a seemingly innocuous announcement on HMRC's newsboard advising staff to keep sending emails to Dame Lesley Strathie.

Why ask staff to keep sending her emails?

Have staff stopped sending her emails?

Or is this a piece of diversionary chaff, designed to torpedo (or at least cast doubt on) the now well publicised news that Dame Lesley is leaving?

Whatever the internal news management team in HMRC are trying to do here, I can assure you that she is not going to return.

PERIOD!

Text of the comment below:

"Well well well,

On the Newsboard this week, "please keep sending e-mails to Lesley Strathie and her team will forward them on to the appropriate people. This will keep an audit trail so Lesley can address any issues upon her return from sick leave"!!!!

I have paraphrased the above and it is the gist of the message from memory.

There is something going on here. 

Why have such a meaningless message on the news board? 

How many staff can this possibly affect? 

Is it a response to Ken's earlier posts about the imminent departure of the pantomime dame?

Very curious indeed."

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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"

How To Use HMRC To Launder Money

Jonathan Fisher QC this week presented the 29th International Symposium on Economic Crime at Jesus College, Cambridge, with a simple guide on how to use HMRC to launder money.

 “Organised criminals set up or take over legitimate companies and predict excessive corporation tax profits for the company year. The companies pay large sums in provisional tax based on predicted profits, with these monies having been derived from criminal activity. Later, the company’s accountant approaches the tax authority to explain that profits had been far lower than anticipated and in this way obtain a tax rebate. 

The second way in which HMRC has found itself penetrated by criminals for money laundering purposes takes place with the active encouragement and support of the Government.

Since 2007 HMRC has offered taxpayers a variety of different disclosure opportunities to encourage the voluntary disclosure of taxable income on hidden assets in return for beneficial tax treatment. The opportunity presented to money launderers to legitimatise the monies from their illegal activities and bring them into the financial system is colossal”.

HMRC are of the view that he doesn't know what he is talking about, and told the Telegraph:

"This is complete nonsense, there is not a shred of evidence to support these claims. HMRC has robust measures in place to prevent fraud against the tax system."

Herein I would like to ask my loyal readers, how robust are the anti money laundering measures at HMRC then?
Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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"

Tax Investigation For Dummies - Win £10

One of my very loyal readers, Nick Morgan, has asked me to post this message about his book "Tax Investigation for Dummies" and a wee competition that he is running:

"Do you know where the goalposts are? 

Anybody in the tax investigation game knows that HMRC is constantly moving the goal posts and not just moving them, painting them different colours and pushing them closer together too! 

Any advice on tax investigation has to be checked, double checked and continually updated. I’ve just updated the e-book “Tax Investigation for Dummies...” and I think it's very good and factually accurate. 

I’m offering £10 – cash to the first reader who can spot a factual error in the book. 

The book normally costs £10 but for the next 48 hours it’s going to be available free, you can see it and get a copy at this address 

Tax Investigation for Dummies Download

If you can find an error contact me using the form at www.tax-hell.co.uk

Good luck. 

Nick 

PS It's just been pointed out to me that a date is out by a year on page five - so that mistake has gone! 

www.tax-hell.co.uk" 


Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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 Revolving Door II

My thanks to a loyal reader who commented about an article in Private Eye wrt Corven Consulting, the SFO and a couple of ex HMRC bods who are directors of the SFO.


"Q. What is the connection here as reported by Private Eye, issue 1296 p.29:-
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO), Corven Consulting, £500,000, Philippa Williamson SFO CEO, Richard Alderman SFO Director?


A. Williamson and Alderman are both ex. HMRC, Corven are the Pacesetter "Guru" company, £500,000is the amount paid by the SFO to Corven since June 2010.


Is there something behind all this Pacesetter evangelism after all?"

A cursory poke around Corven's website indicates that they are the "go to" place for PaceSetter:

"Since 2005 Corven has been engaged by HMRC where it supported the design and implementation of its PaceSetter programme. Through the development of leadership at all levels and the application of Lean techniques across an organisation of 70,000 staff, HMRC has achieved audited savings to date in excess of £370m per annum. As part of this work, skills have been transferred to over 420 staff that are now trained in individual and team coaching and as Lean practitioners".

Which is "nice".

I wonder how all this started then?

Oddly enough, way back in July 2006, the Telegraph reported that HMRC had awarded consultancy contracts worth £4M (some to Corven) without first putting them out to tender.

The paper noted that Crispin Ellison, a director of Corven, had worked with Sir David Varney, ex chairman of HMRC, when Varney was chairman of MMO2.

"The revelation that a number of firms have been given work outside the tendering process will only heighten concerns that HMRC is not delivering value for money. Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal the organisation has "uncovered issues with the procurement of consultancy services".

The body's annual report, released a fortnight ago, also refers to the failings. One section refers to "non-adherence to public procurement rules" in relation to the use of consultants and says HMRC is now trying to ensure fully compliant contracts are in place by this autumn.


It also reveals HMRC is reviewing invoices to ensure "future spending on consultancy is made using these contracts".

The report does not identify any of the individual contracts that breached the rules, but documents seen by this newspaper show that in June 2004 Corven Consulting received work worth more than £120,000 without going through competitive tendering.

HMRC admits Corven began work on this assignment even before a contract had been drawn up because of "tight deadlines".

Corven has since won additional HMRC contracts worth £2.8 million, some at the behest of senior members of HMRC's executive committee.

In the past year Corven has provided coaching and support to senior members of the executive committee as well as general support and advice to Sir David Varney. HMRC refused to say whether Sir David, 60, had personally suggested Corven for any of the work.

Prior to joining HMRC, Sir David worked for some of Britain's biggest companies, including British Gas, MMO2 and Shell. Corven lists all three companies as clients on its website. 

Crispin Ellison, a director of Corven responsible for the revenue contract, insisted that the company had won work on the basis of its good reputation in the field. He said he was personally unaware of problems because the awarding of contracts was a matter for HMRC.

"I have no idea why we were chosen for the contract," he said. "We tend to focus on large scale transformations in the public and private sector."

Mr Ellison confirmed that the firm had worked with Sir David while he was chairman of MMO2 but said this collaboration was totally unconnected with any work it was now carrying out for HMRC.

An HMRC spokeswoman said: "Our own internal checks highlighted some issues in connection with the procurement of consultancy services. These issues have now been addressed."

Let's bookmark this and come back to it in due course.

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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"