HMRC Wants Quickie Divorce From Concentrix

 

Given the ongoing shit storm wrt HMRC's and Concentrix's handling of tax credits, it should come as no surprise to learn that HMRC is negotiating with Concentrix for an early exit from the tax credits contract due to run until May 2017.

This quickie divorce story must be true because financial secretary to the Treasury Jane Ellison told MPs during a three-hour House of Commons debate on 26 October.

However, call me a cynic, but I guarantee that if the contract is terminated earlier than May then the hapless taxpayer will be screwed for large penalty clauses etc payable to Concentrix.

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"

MTD - HMRC's Fanatical Religion

Wise words indeed from Tony Margaritelli:

"...my overriding thought as I walked away from the venue was that MTD was going to happen and I seriously don’t think HMRC are ready nor for that matter do I think businesses are ready and if we are to have MTD then we need to get a serious delay."

No one is ready for MTD, least of all HMRC. However, the trouble with fanatics is that you can never convince them that they may be in error!

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"

WTT Big Group

If you are bullied by #HMRC over imagined tax "due", join forces with thousands others in Big Group https://t.co/y86cSHVUiZ#APN #FightBack

— DotasScandalDotOrg (@dotasscandal) October 17, 2016

I have just come across the above tweet about the WTT Big Group, and popped over to look at the website:

"WTT BIG GROUP is an action group of current and ex-contractors directly affected by the existing and proposed legislative changes granting HMRC wide ranging powers. Our focus is on mobilising a collaborative voice to develop a strategy for resolution of the existing enquiry in a fair and appropriate way ensuring the future sustainability of the contractor profession. 

The primary objective of the group is to arrive at a tax analysis and consequent settlement with HMRC, which can be regarded as fair and reasonable for both parties. This is not limited to the tax position whilst engaged in the scheme but will extend to agreement in respect of any obligations or rights that still exist, such as loans from trusts. This will be essential in order to reach overall finality following recent budgetary announcements indicating that all outstanding loans received via an EBT will be taxed as income on 05 April 2019."

Other than that I know nothing about the group.

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"

Concentrix - The Story That Just Keeps On Giving

"I expect we'll have something to announce in the next few days about this contract finishing." Thompson on Concentrix #pac #hmrc

— Andrew Goodall (@agoodall4) October 26, 2016

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"

Tax Free Wine

Kudos to Elaine Clark for identifying a means of buying £300 of wine tax free. As per her CA Blog:

"This corker (excuse the pun) of a tax loophole has just come to my attention.

The new “trivial benefits exemption” introduced earlier this year means that, as a director of a limited company, you can purchase multi bottles of wine (costing less than £50 each) up to a maximum of £300 of wine in any one year.

Yes – HMRC have introduced a tax loophole allowing you to buy wine through your limited company – what a result!

Of course if you do not like wine the benefits can be anything else as long as the rules, below, are followed.

The rules
To qualify for this benefit you do need to keep within the rules, which frankly shouldn’t be arduous:

• The benefit must not exceed £50
• It must not be cash or a cash voucher
• The benefit must not be a contractual obligation or in recognition of a service performed – so do not buy yourself wine for doing a good job but buy it because there the sun is shining (or some other ridiculous reason not connected to performance)
• The total benefits are capped at £300 per year

Note – further rules may apply; so it is always best to check the detail with your accountant.

Multi Directorships
And of course if you are a director of more than one limited company you can exploit this rule through each of your directorships.

Presents and Gifts
Within the £300 maximum and £50 per item limit, as a director you can also give “benefits” to members of your household; so you could buy your (living at home) children a computer game (less than £50) or your spouse a pair of socks.

Spouse
Although if your spouse is a director they too get benefit from this loophole – so an extra £300 allowance with a maximum of £50 per “benefit”.

Note for accountants – Brainless HMRC
You have got to wonder why HMRC did not apply the same rules as for the Employment Allowance. Surely someone could have foreseen the potential to exploit this little gem of a tax rule.

More information
Draft guidance from HMRC on this is set out at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tax-exemption-for-trivial-benefits-in-kind-draft-guidance/tax-exemption-for-trivial-benefits-in-kind-draft-guidance

Make the most of it before it is stopped!

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"

Some Taxpayers Are More Equal Than Others

Wise words indeed from CIOT:

"HMRC’s communications (perhaps restricted by taxpayer confidentiality), have not recently convinced the public that laws are applied to all taxpayers equally."

They are not just wise but also ironic, given that "confidentiality" doesn't seem to apply to "off the record" briefings to journalists!

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"

#HartnettGate - OSA Breached

Regarding Hartnett's briefing to journalists in 2012.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but don't HMRC employees have to sign the Official Secrets Act (OSA)?

That being the case, does this briefing not constitute a serious breach of OSA?

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"

Hartnett Broke The Prime Directive

As loyal readers are aware Hartnett has hit the headlines again, the Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that HMRC unlawfully disclosed confidential information to journalists about financial advisors Ingenious Media, known for promoting film investment schemes.

Hartnett gave journalists from The Times an "off the record" briefing in 2012.

Economia reports that during the course of the briefing, agreed to be “off the record”, the journalists instigated a conversation with Hartnett about Ingenious, its CEO Patrick McKenna about a film investment scheme. Some of the information was used in a later Times story.

A 2013 High Court judgment struck out Ingenious' breach of confidentiality claim against HMRC on the basis that the briefing was off the record. Ingenious also lost an appeal in 2015.

The highest court in the land, however, ruled that HMRC had breached its duty of confidentiality.

Lord Toulson, the Supreme Court justice, said in his ruling, “The information supplied by Mr Hartnett to the journalists about Mr McKenna and Ingenious Media was confidential in nature, in respect of which HMRC owed a duty of confidentiality.”

“The fact that Mr Hartnett did not anticipate his comments being reported is not a justification for making them. The desire to foster good relations with the media and to publicise HMRC’s view about tax avoidance schemes and speculation that the journalists may have subsequently informed Mr Hartnett about other tax avoidance schemes do not provide sufficient justification for the disclosures either.”

Ingenious has been awarded costs and is now considering whether to seek compensation.

As some of you have also observed, this breach of taxpayer confidentiality strikes at the very core of HMRC's "prime directive" of confidentiality.

As per Lord Toulson:

“The whole idea of HMRC officials supplying confidential information about individuals to the media on a non-attributable basis is, or should be, a matter of serious concern.”

Will Hartnett and those others responsible be prosecuted for 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"

HMRC Employee Shot Dead ‘While Working as a Drug Dealer’

As per the Metro:

"An HMRC taxman who allegedly worked as a drug dealer on the side was shot in a lay-by ‘in a dispute over cash’. 

Mark Jones, a government valuation officer, died in hospital two months after the alleged attack despite having 15 operations on his gunshot wounds.

Two brothers, Stephen Bennett, 53, and Edward Bennett, 47, are accused of murdering him at the lay-by on the A4059 in Mountain Ash, South Wales on July 26 last year.

Currently on trial at Cardiff Crown Court, they allegedly targeted 43-year-old Jones in a row over money.
Prosecutor Chris Clee QC said: ‘Edward Bennett was a friend of Mark Jones and had been for some time. He was also involved in drug dealing with Mark Jones.’

Both brothers have pleaded not guilty to murder.

PC John Brimble, who was called to the incident, said he found Jones lying on the floor groaning in pain,  ‘ash’ in colour.

Another officer at the scene, PC Maddox, said: ‘I asked Mr Jones if he had been shot. He was in a considerable amount of pain and was groaning.

‘I asked Mr Jones ‘do you know who did this?’.

‘I said ‘are you going to tell me?’ But he said ‘no’.’

Paramedic Simon Tunnicliffe there was a lot of blood and Jones was pale and ‘sweating profusely’.

He treated a wound near Jones’ abdomen and said he also suffered a shattered humerus and a severely injured elbow joint.

CCTV footage was also shown to the court, which showed the movements of a white van, with the word Ashdown written on it, driven by Stephen Bennett, on July 26, 2015.

The trial continues."

Quite a double life was being led there!

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"

Brexit Implications For Making Tax Digital

Per @thetimes leaving EU Customs Union wd mean HMRC wd need new IT system to track origin of imported goods. That'll be easy. #Brexit #Irony

— Heather Self (@hselftax) October 19, 2016

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 and Concentrix Pass The Buck

Unsurprisingly the buck passing by both HMRC and Concentrix, over the tax credits fiasco, has not amused the Work and Pensions Committee.

As per CCH Daily the committee said it will write to both HMRC and Concentrix asking for ‘urgent information’ on how the outsourcer’s performance of Concentrix was monitored by HMRC and the levels of staffing and training at Concentrix.

It said there had been ‘repeated buck-passing’ between Concentrix and HMRC as to who was responsible for failure to assess claims correctly when carrying out fraud checks.

In addition, the committee wants details of the steps HMRC will take to compensate claimants, to ensure they are not further disadvantaged, and its plans to review decisions taken by Concentrix. It is seeking an assurance that Concentrix will not be compensated for HMRC taking much of their responsibilities back in-house. The committee also plans to issue a report into the scandal.

Well then, let's see what crawls from beneath the stones that the WPC aim to kick over!

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 In A Nutshell

My thanks to a loyal reader who posted the following comment yesterday, that summaries the state of HMRC in  a nutshell:

"In my Mapeley run HMRC office the heating is broken and is apparently not likely to be fixed this winter. The gents toilets have also overflowed onto the carpet in the corridor and the staff are treated each morning to the smell of stale urine. 

This is what you can routinely expect as your working conditions in this department. I personally would like to rub the faces of all those who agreed and promoted this contract into that piss soaked carpet."

Working heating and toilets are surely the very least that any company should provide its 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"

The Victims of Concentrix and HMRC

As per The Mirror:

A disabled single mum fought back tears today as she told MPs of her treatment at the hands of shamed tax credits firm Concentrix.

Sarah Broome, 30, was told to ask for her benefits back in a hand-written letter - despite the fact she has one hand and suffers chronic pain and carpal tunnel syndrome.

The mum-of-two told MPs her tax credits were stopped in August after she was "financially connected" to a person she had never heard of.

She spent 19 hours and 57 minutes on the phone to the US outsourcing firm in six weeks - including one day when she was blocked by an engaged tone 70 times.

Eventually she got through to an advisor but was told she could not send a letter using a dictation service.

Ms Broome told MPs: "I said 'I can't write because my hand shakes. How do you expect me to write this letter by hand?'

"They told me 'well, you are just going to have to get someone else to write it for you'. They were the exact words.

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 Building Our Future - Mapeley

My thanks to a loyal reader who directed me to Hansard 28 April 2016 wrt

HMRC: Building our Future Plan

 

There are numerous mentions of our old friends at Mapeley and the significance of 2021.

Happy reading!

Chris Stephens

I suspect that the word “Mapeley” will come up in the course of this debate, so let me touch on it. I referred earlier to the more than 700 offices formerly used by HMRC. Mapeley Estates snapped up more than 130 of them for its offshore property portfolio after loading itself up with debt in order to front up its side of this rotten charade with the then Government: 84% of the funding that Mapeley obtained to acquire that lucrative contract came in the form of loans. That shabby deal with a shabby company comes to an end in 2021. For the privilege of renting publicly built offices sold off for a song, HMRC will have the right to occupy buildings, with leases based on market terms” after that date. That is very generous of Mapeley.​

I commend the National Audit Office on its 2009 report on the deal. It is redolent with phrases such as, “the Department has not achieved value for money…The Department did not fully appreciate the risks… The Department has not had strong processes to monitor the overall cost of the contract and whether it is achieving value for money”.

The Exchequer Secretary admitted to this House last year that the end life of the Mapeley contracts represented a “one-off opportunity to make this change to the estate footprint.”—[Official Report, 24 November 2015; Vol. 602, c. 1300.]

That is part of the truth behind the closures—a private finance initiative deal worth billions from the public purse, used to enrich a Bermuda-domiciled corporate entity, with the public left with nothing at the end of 20 years, except the right to sign a commercial lease.

I will end with the words of a PCS member and HMRC employee, my constituent Bobby Young, who is chair of the PCS Revenue and Customs branch:

“Whilst my branch welcomes the news of a slight increase of jobs in Glasgow, we absolutely oppose it if it comes at the cost of jobs elsewhere. Communities from Bathgate to Bootle will be devastated by these closures—that is not a price worth paying for the sake of a few extra jobs in Glasgow.”

If anyone should know about prices, it is an employee of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. Sadly, it seems that their superiors know very little about value.

Chris Law (Dundee West) (SNP)

I recently discovered that the ownership of the leases of HMRC offices—this has already been mentioned by my hon. Friend—was transferred to a company called Mapeley in 2001. You could not make this up, Mr Deputy Speaker. Where is Mapeley based? In the Bahamas. That is right: HMRC pays rent to a company registered in a tax haven. To quote the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, this Government have scored a “massive own goal”. Who stands to profit from the sales of HMRC local offices? You guessed it: Mapeley again. Why not use local council offices that may be available, and then any profits from the rents would go straight to the Treasury?

Stuart C. McDonald (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (SNP)

Perhaps the Minister will be able to answer some of our questions today, but I must emphasise that debates alone will not be enough. We need the people behind these proposals to come here to explain them directly to Parliament. That would allow Members to get stuck into the nuts and bolts and to get behind the management-speak and buzzwords that are too often passed off as answers. If that does not happen, staff and taxpayers will be left questioning whether HMRC is really “building our future”, as the glossy brochure states, or whether this is in fact a question of buildings forcing our future. It has already been pointed out that this is taking place in the context of the expiry of the extraordinary contracts that were entered into in 2001, when 600 or so properties were sold to the offshore company, Mapeley Steps, and then leased back, PFI-style, to HMRC. Those contracts expire in the years leading up to 2021. In the absence of answers to our questions, many will conclude that this is more about digging HMRC out of the hole that it jumped into in 2001, rather than being about any kind of strategy. That is the only conclusion open to us.

Rob Marris (Wolverhampton South West) (Lab)

Well, Minister, it’s all a bit of mess, isn’t it? I congratulate the hon. Member for Glasgow South West (Chris Stephens) on securing the debate. He touched on staff morale, the workforce figures and the fact that there has been no ministerial statement. Along with several other hon. Members, he also mentioned the shameful Mapeley contract, signed—I am sad to say—by a Labour Government who did not realise at the time that it was an overseas company.

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 Statutory Guidance For Societies

Section 887 of the Income Tax Act 2007 requires registered societies (co-operative societies and community benefit societies) to make annual returns to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) of any payments of interest, dividends, bonuses or other sums. The return must be made within 3 months after the end of the society’s accounting period.

The guidance starts off in a promising and professional manner, unfortunately it then rather falls apart:

"We’ll only except files in this format."

Does no one proof read these things before publication?

This does not give one a feeling a of confidence in the professionalism and competence of 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 Goes After The BBC

HMRC is using the reflected shine from the stars of the BBC to highlight its enthusiasm for tackling tax evasion.

It seems that more than 100 BBC presenters are under investigation for alleged tax avoidance after being suspected of wrongly using personal service companies to minimise their tax bills.

The BBC announced in July that it had moved 85 presenters onto its books as full-time employees, after a report published in 2012 found that the corporation paid more than 124 stars in excess of £150,000 a year via personal service companies.

The new revelations are included within a tax tribunal judgement involving BBC newsreaders Tim Willcox and Joanna Gosling.

As per the Telegraph the BBC, which failed in an application to give evidence in the case, said in its submission:

“HMRC have indicated to the BBC that there are around 100 additional cases under consideration involving current or former BBC presenters.

The BBC also understands that HMRC has initiated or indicated their intention to initiate IR35 proceedings in relation to presenters who are engaged by other broadcasting organisations.

The appeals are therefore extremely important not only to the individuals in question but also to the BBC and to the broadcasting industry as a whole.  The appeals are likely to be the first cases to test the freelance model in the broadcasting industry against the IR35 legislation.”

Let's see how this goes then!

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"

RTI Is The Bedrock Of MTD - Kate Upcraft Calls It!

Wise words indeed from Kate Upcraft:

"As the core RTI and tax payment systems will be the bedrock of Making Tax Digital, it is essential that those systems are stable before MTD is built on top."

Therefore I ask my loyal readers is RTI working well?

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"

DEC FOI

'DEC' https://t.co/5ywqRckOS2 via @whatdotheyknow

— Ken Frost (@ken_frost) October 7, 2016

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 Age of Mistrust

Recently published data published shows that the number of premises raided by HMRC has risen by 53% in the last five years, and by 28% year-on-year.

Rufus Ballaster, Partner at City of London law firm, Carter Lemon Camerons LLP, has said that the news epitomises “the age of mistrust”.

He is quoted by Business Matters:

“Just a decade ago, HMRC’s statistics of criminal cases brought for non-payment were in the handfuls per year – and now they run in the region of a thousand annually. What is more, the tax authorities have powers of investigation and confiscation which are far more draconian than individuals do in civil disputes.

The ‘authorities’ operate on a basis of mistrust – they are hunting down the cheats and there is a perceived need to punish bad behaviour severely, so as to ‘encourage the others’ to pay up

Taxpayers should, and the vast majority of us do, file returns self-assessing the tax we ought to pay and making our payments accordingly. It is acknowledged that the proper functioning of the state requires taxes to be paid, and that proper behaviour of citizens requires frank disclosure and prompt payment in accordance with the law.

Today, tax is almost entirely ‘self-assessment’ based.

Increasingly, however, we live in a country of mistrust and set piece battles with allegations by HMRC of tax avoidance ‘losing billions to the public purse’ on the one hand, and protests from people and corporations that they pay ‘what is properly due’ on the other – so what is the truth here?

If certain tax payments are properly due and the taxpayer has mis-disclosed facts, or failed to file honest returns, HMRC is behaving in the public interest and we should defend its actions.

If, however, there is any doubt whatsoever about the position, it is the tax payer – and not the state – who should be heard fully and fairly before being pilloried for ‘tax evasion’”.

I would also add, that HMRC tends to target low hanging fruit (ie those people/companies that don't have an army of professional tax advisers and lawyers to argue their case) which in itself adds to the atmosphere of mistrust endured by taxpayers.

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 Class 2 NIC Classification Foul Up

My thanks to a loyal reader who flagged up an issue with HMRC's Class 2 NIC classifications and an HMRC system update that went wrong:

"We had a client, self employed for many years, and submitted his 2016 tax return as normal. This year the Class 2 NIC is collected with the self assessed tax, and was duly included in the calculation.

HMRC immediately issued a fresh calculation, excluding the Class 2, so I phoned to ask why? After a long delay I was put through to their NIC office where I had to explain the problem all over again.

It appears that the client was listed as a "voluntary" payer of Class 2, something apparently reserved for exam markers and similar taxpayers. It also seems that their update of their system went wrong, and a number of taxpayers (sorry customers) were wrongly flagged.

He advised that he would amend the client's status, and that I should file the return again. I pointed out that we'd already filed a correct return, and that the fault lay in their system, so it was up to them to correct their own error. He didn't see it that way.

Welcome to the world of HMRC, where they screw things up and expect us to fix them....

.....I've now written to them quoting a price for re-filing tax returns and requesting confirmation that they will reimburse the client."

Has anyone else experienced this problem?

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"

Who, Why or What is DEC?

My thanks to a loyal reader who has advised me that there may be issues wrt DEC.

Who, why, or what is DEC?

DEC is a centralised IT system used by HMRC's Counter Avoidance Division. In theory it is meant to bring together all demographic, legal, tax and historic information on tax avoiders.

I am advised that the DEC system has now cost £40 million. Unfortunately it does not work terribly well, if at all.

I understand that much of the key documentation around avoidance cases sent to Counter Avoidance, from local HMRC offices from inspectors told to drop and transfer cases to Counter Avoidance, has disappeared (been lost).

The value of these lost cases in terms of tax revenue is, so I understand, £2BN.

I would be interested to hear more details about DEC, please feel free to email me on an anonymous basis.

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"

Ex Concentrix Employee Blames Poor HMRC Systems

An ex Concentrix employee, who was made redundant last week, told the Belfast Telegraph it had been "tough and stressful" for the workforce since the news broke that the contract would not be renewed in 2017.

The Government said Concentrix had "not been providing the high levels of customer service that the public expect and which are required in their contract".

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However, the ex employee disagrees:

"I don't agree that it was Concentrix's fault. It's the HMRC's systems - everything needs updated.

They need systems to be able to take on information much quicker.

It takes up to 48 hours. The staff are trained in exactly what they have to do. We worked on behalf of HMRC carrying out compliance checks. Sometimes you would be on the phone, or off the phone working on cases."

The former employee claimed that once staff had dealt with and processed a case, as well as the massive delay, the systems used by the Government body were not up to scratch.

"After we were closing cases off... it then sits in a sort of limbo stage."

As ever, views and comments 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"