HMRC and Brexit

The National Audit Office has stated that HMRC has accelerated work on its contingency plans for handling customs declarations in the event of a “no-deal” Brexit next March.

The NAO said that if this work was successfully completed, HMRC would have the system capacity to handle customs declarations no matter what the outcome of exit negotiations between the UK and the EU; ie HMRC would be in a position to handle a "no deal" Brexit.

However, the NAO also stated that significant challenges remain and the success of wider customs preparations would involve many other dependent systems and processes at the border.

Civil Service World reports that auditors found HMRC has started to engage with 150,000 traders that import and export goods outside of the EU, but has not yet started the same communications with the at least 145,000 EU-only traders who may need to make customs declarations after March 2019, dependent on the EU exit deal.

Time and the outcome of the Brexit negotiations will tell if HMRC is up to the challenge!

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"

"Building Our Future" Runs Into Resistance In Ealing

Ealing Council and Ealing Central & Acton MP Rupa Huq are fighting to prevent the closure of the borough’s HMRC office which could lead to the loss of 260 jobs.

HMRC has proposed that the office could close in 2020/21 as part of the latest phase of a restructure across the UK.

At a full council meeting on Tuesday (June 12) the council unanimously passed a motion to support members of the Ealing branch of the PCS Union, which is campaigning against the potential closure.

The motion read:

“The proposed closure of the HMRC Ealing office in the year 2020/21 will mean the loss of approx 260 quality jobs, of which 75% are carried out by female and ethnic minority workers.

This will mean HMRC no longer have a presence in Ealing. The loss to the local Ealing economy is estimated at approx one million pounds per year. This loss will inevitably have a detrimental impact on other businesses in the area that staff use. We call on Ealing Council to debate this issue, oppose the loss of jobs in Ealing and join the campaign to keep the office open beyond 2020/21.”

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"

IR35 To Be Tailored To Suit The BBC

ContractorUK reports that new IR35 guidance for BBC presenters with Personal Service Companies is to be drawn up by HMRC.

By the end of last week, the corporation was quietly told to submit proposals for HMRC’s consideration, as were other broadcasters keen to provide PSCs with guidance on the rule.

Talks on the matter between HMRC and the BBC are at the highest level, with the director-general of each organisation directly liaising with the other, a person close to the talks added.  

The resulting broadcaster-only IR35 guidance will raise the prospect that other sectors of workers, contractors in IT for example, will also get their own tailored guidance on IR35.

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 Compulsory Mass ID Scheme

Millions of British taxpayers have had their voices recorded, analysed and stored by HMRC without their consent.

According to Big Brother Watch, HMRC’s Voice ID system has collected more than five million audio signatures, which have been used to create “biometric ID cards by the back door”, the privacy group claims.

Callers are asked to repeat the phrase “my voice is my password” to register for the scheme. This is then used to confirm their identity when managing their taxes.

HMRC says the service had proved “very popular with customers”  since it was introduced last year, and has helped speed up security procedures and improve access to its digital services.

However, Big Brother Watch said taxpayers were being “railroaded into a mass ID scheme”, as they were not given the choice to opt out.

The group’s director, Silkie Carlo, described the scheme as “shady” and is quoted by The Week:

"These voice IDs could allow ordinary citizens to be identified by government agencies across other areas of their private lives”.

HMRC could also fall foul of the EU’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into force last month and requires all organisations to obtain explicit consent from users before they use biometric data, “including voice recordings”, to identify someone.

I assume someone will be reporting HMRC to the relevant regulatory authority?

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 £5BN Additional Tax Take Target

HMRC as regulator, investigator and litigator | Tax Journal https://t.co/eKhVcetHE3 // HMRC’s recently revised departmental plan sets a long-term target of raising an additional £5bn a year by 2020 through tackling tax evasion, avoidance and non-compliance...

— Ann Humphrey (@AnnHumphrey) June 25, 2018

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"

MOO - A Question of Interpretation

HMRC has been accused by Dave Chaplin, CEO and founder of ContractCalculator, of misleading the chancellor of the exchequer and the Treasury over the off-payroll IR35 rules, in particular with regards to the mutuality of obligation (MOO) aspect which is necessary to assess employment status.

Mr Chaplin claims that the HMRC has supposed that MOO is present for all contractors, and this assumption was built into the HMRC’s Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST) tool. As a result, he believes around 750,000 CEST results will need to be re-examined, alongside thousands of blanket decisions made by organisations like the NHS.

This interpretation of MOO was repeated by chancellor Philip Hammond in a letter to the environment secretary, Michael Gove:

“Mutuality of obligation refers to any existing agreement where an individual provides services and receives payment for doing so – better understood as a contract existing between the two parties. CEST assumes as its starting point that a contract either exists or is being discussed.”

Financial secretary to the Treasury, Mel Stride, also repeated this interpretation in a letter to many constituents.

Dave Chaplin said:

“We doubt the Chancellor or the Financial Secretary to the Treasury have any idea about what MOO is which is why they appear happy to trot out – albeit unwittingly – HMRC’s falsehoods regarding MOO and CEST.

HMRC has been propagating its erroneous claims to public authorities and IR35 Forum members of late, but it’s a grave concern when these false claims are coming from the country’s key economic and fiscal decision makers. Questions must be asked.”

Mr Chaplin has called for a full inquiry before any further changes to IR35 are considered.

IR35 seeks to prove that workers are employees, and should be taxed as such. HMRC inspectors can disregard written contracts through intermediaries and consider the actual working practises to decipher whether a person should be classed as an employee.

However, according to ContractCalculator, MOO means that the employer would be obliged to offer work, and the worker would be obliged to accept.

As per ContractCalculator judgement day is coming:

"It’s been nine months, multiple delays and many excuses in the making, but HMRC has finally confirmed in a Freedom of Information (FOI) response to ContractorCalculator that it will confirm its stance by the end of July 2018."

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 Use "Nudge" Techniques To Persuade People To Give Up Their Legal Rights - Thread

HMRC presented evidence to the Public Accounts Committee in Dec 2012 that they were going to conduct an experiment to see if they could manipulate people to give up their legal rights in a legitimate dispute with HMRC which HMRC had historically been unable to win in the Courts pic.twitter.com/ZlWAyqwUDG

— Gordon Berry (@wealthagent) June 20, 2018

The thread is live, and worth reading.


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"

David Bunting To Become Interim HMRC General Counsel

Last week I noted that Gill Aitken, HMRC’s General Counsel and Solicitor, is to leave HMRC on 30 June, to take up a new role as Registrar at the University of Oxford.

Whilst HMRC start the "open" recruitment process an interim appointment will be made.

Step forward David Bunting, who currently works in the cross-government Border Delivery Group, as its interim general counsel and solicitor.

Civil Service World reports that Bunting trained in the Inland Revenue and has more than 20 years’ legal experience. He has led HMRC legal teams dealing with tax policy and legislation in relation to UK business and environmental taxes including Corporation Tax, VAT, Customs and Excise duties, oil and gas taxation, Landfill Tax, Climate Change Levy and betting and gaming duties. He has also led HMRC’s litigation activity.

In 2008 he became a senior civil servant, and in 2012 was appointed legal director at HMRC. In 2017 he moved to the Border Delivery Group – a cross-government team led by HMRC’s director general for border coordination Karen Wheeler, which focuses on the operational and practical impacts of Brexit on UK borders.

On 1 July, Bunting will become director general of the Solicitor’s Office and Legal Services Group and will join the department’s executive committee, reporting to chief executive Jon Thompson.

There will be an open recruitment process in the coming months to fill the role permanently, and HMRC said it would confirm any new arrangements in the Border Delivery Group in due course.
Aitken has been at the tax agency since 2014. Commenting on her departure, Thompson said: “She has helped to shape our departmental strategy and I’ll really miss her wise counsel.”

What's the betting that Bunting becomes permanent?

New arrangements in the Border Delivery Group will be announced (decided) in due course.


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"

Beware HMRC's Enablers - Crassly Ignorant Reporters Looking For a Cheap Headline

Bruce Forsyth 'dodged inheritance tax' by leaving £11.7m to wife over kids

Is this was what HMRC campaigns and media hysteria about tax planning has really come to? Criticising use of the IHT spouse exemption? Quite frightening. https://t.co/mk2i6UXbdw

— Mark McLaughlin (@charteredtax) June 19, 2018

IHT spousal exemption is not "tax dodging"!

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 Harasses Those With Mental Health Problems

HMRC has been criticised for failing to recognise mental health issues after it continued to target vulnerable taxpayers despite being issued with warnings from medical professionals.

The Telegraph states that is has been contacted by some of its readers who said their mental health had deteriorated because of the way they had been hounded for cash by HMRC.

In some cases this pursuit continued even after HMRC acknowledged that they were vulnerable. In one instance a high-profile figure attempted suicide after HMRC failed to correctly note his vulnerable person status and continued to contact him.

Others have been left unable to work after suffering anxiety and depression as a result of HMRC inquiries, while one reader asked solicitors to intervene on his behalf.  These cases highlight the lack of recognition and protection for those with mental health difficulties.

HMRC apologised for not meeting its own guidelines, losing letters and failing to return calls.

Andrew Neil, an IT contractor from Llandudno, sent multiple letters from doctors to HMRC, which ignored them.

HMRC acknowledged that Mr Neil was a vulnerable person in November 2016, but continued to send letters and contact him by telephone. The taxman also lost a letter sent by Mr Neil for almost four months and failed to call his wife back after she tried to intervene.

It has apologised for each of these oversights.

Mr Neil and others are among the thousands of people targeted by the taxman because of the way they structured their finances in the past, using loans instead of payments for their income.

These tax arrangements, which were generally considered legal at the time, have since been challenged by HMRC.

Those who have fallen foul now face large tax bills and penalties, sometimes in the hundreds of thousands of pounds. Because of the way HMRC is seeking to collect the tax, the “loan charge” payments due could be much higher than the amount originally owed.

HMRC told Telegraph Money it had safeguards in place to support those with mental health problems.That's all very well, but from the above it seems that HMRC does not follow its own rulebook on the subject of mental health!

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 Gap £33BN

The tax gap slightly increased to £33bn (5.7%) in 2016/17, up from the previous year's revised figure of 5.7% (£32bn). This year, despite the gap increase, the percentage remained at 5.7%.

The tax gap is the difference between the amount of tax that should be paid to HMRC and what is actually paid.

HMRC note that 41% of the tax gap came from small businesses. The group is responsible for an overall gap of £13.7bn. Large businesses accounted for a further £7bn.

The majority of the tax gap came from failing to pay income tax (IT), national insurance contributions (NICs) and capital gains tax (CGT), amounting to a total of £13.5bn. Unpaid value added tax also contributed £11.7bn to the tax gap and corporate tax added £3.5bn.

The tax gap was driven by failure to take reasonable care (£5.9bn), by criminal acts (£5.4bn), tax evasion (£5.3bn), legal interpretation (£5.3bn), non-payment (£3.5bn), error (£3.2bn), hidden economy (£3.2bn) and finally tax avoidance (£1.7bn).

In other words, despite government and HMRC BS, avoidance is not the key issue!

Catherine Robbins, partner at Pinsent Masons, is quoted in economia:

“Very few businesses are engaged in tax avoidance schemes now and as HMRC hunts for new sources of revenue, it is increasingly coming down hard on basic, almost routine errors.”

Basically HMRC will go after low hanging fruit, ie:

- SME's
- Individual 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"

Completely Cretinous

The proposal for a post-Brexit customs arrangement, that the EU rejected, has cost taxpayers £680K in consultancy fees paid by HMRC to McKinsey & Company.

The contract awarded in January and lasting until March saw McKinsey taken on to provide an “assessment of import initiated supply chain and commercial feasibility” of the UK continuing to manage tariffs on imports destined for the EU despite having left the bloc’s customs union, while also enforcing its own independent tariff regime. 

While McKinsey has not commented on the work, a spokesperson for the Treasury – which oversees Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) – was quoted as saying that the government wanted to “harness expertise from both the private and public sector” to “ensure trade with the EU is as frictionless as possible.” 

Jacob Rees-Mogg described it as “completely cretinous” and a “betrayal of common sense.” 

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"

Gill Aitken To Leave HMRC

Gill Aitken, HMRC’s General Counsel and Solicitor, is to leave HMRC on 30 June, to take up a new role as Registrar at the University of Oxford.

As per HMRC:

A recruitment exercise will begin in due course, and interim arrangements for the leadership of the Solicitors Office and Legal Services team will be confirmed shortly.
Gill said:

Law really shapes and changes lives and I have been fortunate in having a civil service career so close to the buzz of politics. I have been able to influence and support decisions which affect our lives and society.

HMRC Chief Executive Jon Thompson said:

I’m hugely grateful to Gill for her contribution to HMRC. She has led a very successful litigation team that has protected billions in revenue and has played a vital role in shaping complex tax legislation. She has helped to shape our departmental strategy and I’ll really miss her wise counsel.

In 2013 I noted:

"HMRC have appointed a new general counsel to replace the retiring Anthony Inglese. Gill Aitken from the Department of Work & Pensions’ (DWP) where she is director general of legal services, will take up the role at the end of January 2014.

As an aside, in 2010 she topped the DWP bonus league by earning a £10K bonus on top of her £125K salary."

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"

Is HMRC Deliberately Cutting Off Calls To Fiddle The Stats?

@ken_frost @MeadowsOnMoney

Maybe you want to look into this. Are HMRC cutting off unanswered calls at 14minutes 30seconds so that they don’t show up on their stats as taking >15 minutes to answer?#HMRCShambles https://t.co/0yG6EeUWqA

— HMRC Victim #2019ChargeIsRetrospective (@HMRCVictim) June 11, 2018

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"

Technical Foul Up With Comments

Sorry folks, but for some reason most comments made over the last two weeks or so have been going into my "awaiting moderation" box without me knowing it.

Hope fully they have now all been published?

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 Won't Answer FOI Request

HMRC have answered my recent FOI request re counter avoidance, saying they won't answer my questions:

"Dear Ken Frost

Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA)
 Thank you for your request, which was received on 16 May, for the following information:

“1) How much tax yield has been allocated to the activities of the Counter Avoidance Group
since its inception?
2) How many cases previously worked in local compliance offices had been successfully
progressed to conclusion with non-zero yield?
3) How many cases had been closed with zero yield by Counter Avoidance?
4) How many cases had been closed because the inquiry window has been passed since
the cases were initially brought for inquiry?”

I can confirm that HMRC holds information that falls within the scope of your request.
However, we estimate that it would exceed the FOIA cost limit to deal with it. The cost limit,
which is specified in regulations, equates to one person spending 3½ working days locating
and extracting all of the information within scope of the request. 

Normally, HMRC would explore with you how you might be able to narrow or refine your
request so that it did not exceed the FOIA cost limit. However, in this case, I cannot see any
scope for doing this.

To provide the information you have requested, we would need to carry out manual search
as well search various recording systems across multiple HMRC business streams and
offices to extract, locate and identify cases previously dealt with in local compliance offices
before the inception of the Counter-Avoidance Directorate. We would then need to conduct
an in-depth review of each case to ascertain whether it relates to tax avoidance, whether it
has been successfully progressed to conclusion, whether or not there was a yield or not and
whether it was closed because the inquiry window has been missed or not.                                                                                        

I have established that the time necessary to complete this task would exceed the cost limit
by some way. Consequently, under section 12(1) of the FOIA, HMRC is not obliged to
comply with your request and we will not be processing it further.

Outside of the FOIA 
To be helpful and outside of the FOIA, in 2013 HM Revenue and Customs set up a
dedicated Counter Avoidance Directorate, bringing together technical, policy and operational expertise from across the Department into one place, in order to concentrate their focus on 
tackling marketed tax avoidance schemes. 
 
Since 2014, £4.5 billion has been received from Accelerated Payment Notices (APNs) and 
over £4 billion has been collected from settlements of marketed avoidance cases. 
 
We currently win over 90% of avoidance cases taken to litigation by taxpayers, many more 
choose to settle before their cases get this far.  
 
If you are not satisfied with this reply you may request a review within two months by 
emailing xxx.xxxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xxx.xx, or by writing to the address at the top right-hand side 
of this letter.    
 
If you are not content with the outcome of an internal review, you can complain to the 
Information Commissioner’s Office. The following link explains how to do this: 
https://ico.org.uk/concerns/ "

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"

Shenanigans At The BBC

This is a very important story: the BBC is persuading its staff to participate in tax avoidance schemes in order to save it money. Those staff will almost certainly be landed with hefty "back tax" bills from the taxman. https://t.co/NMFOoun63P

— David Byers (@davidbyers26) June 8, 2018

Tax avoidance is perfectly legal. However, HMRC has deemed this type of scheme no longer to be a valid means of avoidance.

I wonder though if, having been so keen to enable its stars to avoid tax, will the BBC stand by them when HMRC come after them?

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 Is Shite!

Marvellous. Once again I can't file a client's tax return because of HMRC's IT issues.. pic.twitter.com/rQ2u8KFdN5

— Mark Hendy (@markhendy) June 6, 2018

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 Producers - Jailed For Tax Fraud

A former police officer, financial adviser and a City trader have been jailed for a total of eight years for a £2.4 million tax scam after an investigation by HMRChttps://t.co/eL55icgK8a

— HMRC Press Office (@HMRCpressoffice) June 5, 2018

A motley crew indeed, and a plot line similar to The Producers.

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 Spend on Consultants Rises by 9,000pc

HMRC's spending on consultants has risen by a “staggering” 9,000 per cent, while customer service has plummeted.

MPs are going to call for an investigation into HMRC's use of external consultants.


In April, HMRC spent £844,188 on consultants - the highest monthly amount since 2011 and more than HMRC’s entire annual spending on consultants in 2015, official figures published this week show.

The latest amount is nearly 9,000 per cent greater than the £9,618 HMRC spent in the equivalent period in 2015.

For why the increase:

1 HMRC are cutting back on staff, and

2 HMRC's IT systems are shite, and it needs external support to keep them running and maybe upgrade them.

The irony is given HMRC's obsession with IR35, many of these consultants will be withdrawing their services and HMRC will have a very hard job indeed finding more to plug the holes!

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"

Irony Tax Scam Call Alert

Just received a scam automated phone call stating I’m under investigation by HMRC. Given I’m looking at HMRC for its own generous tax breaks to Arms Industry, kind of ironic.

— Iain Overton (@iainoverton) June 1, 2018

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"