Does HMRC Need a Review?

In February Labour announced that it would, if it took power, begin an 'immediate and independent review into the culture and practices of HMRC with regard to tax avoidance.'

Labour lost.

The question is, should HMRC be subjected to a thorough root and branch review (not just focusing on the dog whistle aspects of avoidance)?

Would a review, if it actually took place, be used by those who set it up to further their own agenda and, if not, would anyone act on the review's findings?

I welcome comment and opinions on this.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

What a Whopper! - Bernnie Ecclestone's £1BN Tax Bill

The FT reports that Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One chief executive, is fighting a tax bill of more than £1bn, after Revenue & Customs reopened a long-running dispute over a family trust.

The judge ruled that a judicial review to decide whether HMRC had breached its guidance should only be considered after the commercial court decides whether HMRC’s withdrawal from its 2008 agreement was legal.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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 Software

HMRC software didn't understand "I don't know the NI number" but it did understand "I don't know the sodding NI number"

— Stuart Jones (@StuartJones) May 19, 2015

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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"

Hodge Stands Down From PAC

Margaret "Enver" Hodge is to stand down from chairing PAC.

As such the role is up for grabs (as is tradition) for a longstanding MP in the main opposition party.

The Guardian lists some names in the frame:

- Meg Hillier, who was a member of the committee under Hodge;
- John Healey, the former housing minister;
- Helen Goodman, the shadow minister for welfare reform under Ed Miliband; and
- Gisela Stuart, who called for a grand coalition with the Tories in the event of a hung parliament.

Time will tell who gets it, and how effective he/she will be.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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"

FDA Predicts Job Losses

Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA civil service union, has told the Mirror that he expects HMRC to lose between 10,000 and 15,000 of its 64,000 staff.


Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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"

When Is a Request Not a Request?

My thanks to a loyal reader who advised me about an enquiry she received from the Valuation Office Agency VOA (which is "sponsored" by HMRC - what the fark does that mean?) the other day, wrt the rental details of a small studio she rents.

The VOA sent her a VO 6003 form (used the asses the rateable value of a non domestic property), requesting that it be filled in within 56 days.

As it's only a "request" for information, does she have to?

Yes, apparently, for if she misses the 56 day deadline she will be fined £100.

Ker Fucking Ching!

I would suggest that the VOA rewords its covering letter and changes the word "request" to "demand", given that it slaps a fine on people for non compliance!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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's Oppressive Fines

The FT reports that the Low Incomes Tax Refrom Group (LITRG) has described HMRC's automatic £100 fine for late tax returns as “nothing short of oppressive”, and has urged HMRC to overhaul the penalties imposed on nearly 1m people a year.

LITRG correctly notes that taxpayers, who cannot afford professional advisers, face being fined had missed the deadline because of ignorance, ill health or bereavement.

Additionally, around 200,000 people last year missed the deadline because they failed to press the “submit” button when they filed online.

HMRC announced plans in February to consider “whether we could better differentiate between deliberate and persistent non-compliers and those who might make an occasional error for whom alternative interventions are more appropriate”.

There is a world of difference between a taxpayer who misses a deadline by a day or two and someone who has made no attempt to comply at all.

 

Automatic fines should not be used as an easy means of generating extra revenue.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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 Admits P55 Form Badly Worded

 

HMRC is making urgent changes to a new tax refund form (P55), issued following the government’s pension reforms, after admitting it is “badly worded” and is causing confusion.
HMRC said it would update the form “as soon as possible”, after pensioners complained that the document, issued only a month ago, was misleading.

HMRC has since apologised to a 71-year-old for causing distress after it continually advised her to use the form to reclaim several thousands of pounds in overpaid tax, when the document stated she was ineligible to use it due to her circumstances.

HMRC issued form P55 on April 6 to help pension savers reclaim 30-day refunds on any overpaid tax, if they had accessed their pension pots under the new freedoms. Many savers were expected to face big upfront tax deductions as HMRC had also instructed pension providers to tax accessed pension cash withdrawals at an emergency rate, unless the taxpayer had supplied a P45.

However, Margarete Petrie 71, who had money deducted after she took cash from her pension last month, said the form made it impossible for her to claim.

She is quoted by the FT:

“The P55 form cannot be used to reclaim tax if the person is taking more than one payment in the year, which I intended to do.

This is clearly stated on the form.”

Mrs Petrie was involved in several communications with her pension provider and HMRC, which insisted she use the form to reclaim her tax.

“I felt like I was banging my head on a brick wall.

I want to reclaim this tax, but the form was saying one thing and the tax authorities another.”

After the Financial Times intervened, the HMRC conceded that people in Mrs Petrie’s situation could still claim a refund using P55, but the form was “badly worded” and was causing confusion.

An HMRC spokesman said:

“I can confirm that it is possible to use form P55 to ask for a repayment. 

We will certainly look at updating the wording on the form as soon as possible and are sorry for any confusion the wording is causing.

We apologise to Mrs Petrie for the distress and inconvenience we have caused her and her family.”

The tax system is a nightmare.

Who will deliver us from it?????

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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"

French Lessons

My thanks to a loyal reader, who advised me of the problems that he has been having wrt submitting a client's tax forms:

"We have been sending forms to a tax office in Bristol for some years whenever a client has needed a certificate of residence to avoid the deduction of withholding tax by their foreign customers. 

Now that HMRC have decided to streamline their operations, the last letter addressed to Bristol, enclosing Form 5000 EN in triplicate, was diverted. Whereas Bristol used to turn round the forms within a week, we waited a month for a reply, which came on Glasgow headed paper. 

We are informed that these French forms are not acceptable to HMRC because they are not printed on both sides of the paper. 

We have tried to speak to someone at HMRC about this, and we have been told by one helpline that the letter was generated at Portsmouth and by another that it was generated at Cardiff. In any case, no-one is available to speak to us, but someone should phone us within three days. 

It looks like we may have to go to Francois Hollande and tell him to get his act together. We can't have the French Republic wasting paper, can we? 

If we tell him that David Cameron finds his tax forms unacceptable I wonder what he will say? 

Any guesses?"

I am surprised that the fact that the forms are not printed on both sides caused a problem. Surely double sided forms would be more problematic?

Comments and opinions are welcome.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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"

Financial Secretary To The Treasury

Any bets as to who will be Financial Secretary to the Treasury?


UPDATE


It's Gauke.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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"

Whither Tax Simplification?

Now that the General Election is done and dusted, will our political masters address the complex monster that has become the UK tax system?

Will they fark!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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"

RCTU Woos HMRC Staff

It seems that there is a new union offering HMRC staff an alternative to PCS. The R&C Trade Union (RCTU), formed earlier this year by former members of PCS, claims it can get a better deal for its members by talking with managers rather than striking.

PCS represents about 60,000 workers at HMRC, whilst (according to Lynden Melrose (senior officer at RCTU) RCTU has a membership "well into three figures".

RCTU says:

“To those who say the employer will not respond a national level and the only way is industrial action, we say it has not worked in the past and will not in the future and that means we go on the way we are.

The employer goes on and we remain bottom of all the organisations in the annual staff survey. That is not a victory; it is a damning statement that must change.”

AccountingWeb notes that RCTU needs ‘voluntary recognition’ from HMRC so it can negotiate collectively on behalf of its members. That would probably mean getting at least thousands of members.


Time will tell!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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"

Pension Confusion

The new pension rules are leaving people open to possible retrospective tax charges, if their schemes are not compliant with HMRC rules.

The FTAdviser reports that Australian pension schemes could no longer meet the compliance definition to qualify as a registered overseas pension scheme after a letter sent by HM Revenue and Customs backdating new regulations brought in following pension access reforms.

The letter, dated 17 April and seen by FTAdviser, was sent to overseas schemes and backdates regulations to 6 April. Rules for qualifying recognised overseas schemes, or Qrops, were changed to ensure access rules were in line with those brought in in April under retirement freedoms.

HMRC states it is seeking confirmation from the schemes that they remain complaint with the rules. Failure to do so could mean transfers in are treated as unauthorised payments at hit with a retrospective 55 per cent tax charge.

It asks for specifications that either the country’s law prohibits access before the age of 55 or that the scheme rules have been amended to ensure they do not allow funds to be withdrawn before members reach this age unless due to severe ill health, in line with laws in the UK.

It won't be just Australian schemes that are being tested by HMRC.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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 vs UBS/Deutsche Bank

HMRC is going to the Supreme Court to appeal decisions made against it wrt two tax schemes operated by UBS and Deutsche Bank in 2003 and 2004, which were designed to avoid tax on bonus payments.

In the UBS and Deutsche cases, HMRC had claimed that the sums allocated to employees as bonuses at the start of each scheme were liable to income tax.

An earlier upper tribunal ruling had described both banks as adopting a (as per the FT) “carefully planned tax avoidance scheme which was designed to enable the [banks] to provide substantial bonuses to employees in the tax year 2003/04 in a way that would escape liability to both income tax and national insurance contributions”.

It is interesting that HMRC are going after schemes:

- that are over a decade old,
- no longer operate,
- were ruled legal by the court of appeal, and
- are based on restricted securities in that participants had to agree to waive their bonuses in return for shares which were locked up for a period of years. When the shares vested they were taxed on the value in the form of CGT.

The case will go before the Supreme Court later this year.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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 Faces Legal Challenge Over LDF

Accountancylive reports that HMRC could face a legal challenge over its decision to offer UK taxpayers with undeclared HSBC Swiss bank accounts the chance to settle via the Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility (LDF), rather than prosecuting them for tax avoidance which would have seen many pay higher penalties.

Solicitors Leigh Day have been instructed by global online campaign group Avaaz to send a ‘pre-action’  letter to HMRC regarding the tax authorities’ actions over the Falciani list of names of around 3,600 UK taxpayers (also referred to as the Lagarde list).

The letter invites HMRC to explain the basis and terms on which it made the LDF offer; explain how many taxpayers used the LDF settlement and why this was possible as their accounts were in Switzerland at the time; and provide an analysis of the impact on tax receipts.

HMRC has 30 days to respond to the Avaaz letter, after which the group can apply to a judge to launch the review.


Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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"