International Investment reports that HMRC does not have the staff to investigate all the offshore tip-offs it gets, after being swamped with a staggering 5.7 million pieces of information about overseas bank accounts held by three million British citizens.
The information is coming from 100 countries under common reporting standards (CRS) agreed by the international Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The standards are designed to stop tax evasion, or avoidance, by making governments aware of overseas money held by their citizens.
However, BDO state that becuae HMRC has a staff shortage it is instead sending out a series of "nudge" letters to the people named asking them to send details of their financial affairs in an attempt to uncover incidents of tax evasion.
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"
Actually HMRC senior management have made the choice.
ReplyDeleteThey have pressed ahead with BOF.
They do not delegate Panama Papers information to regional criminal investigation teams.
They have decided to prioritise low hanging fruit in order to try and achieve arbitrary and unrealistic targets.
"They have decided to prioritise low hanging fruit in order to try and achieve arbitrary and unrealistic targets."
ReplyDeleteOr what is known as "quick wins". That is, quantity over quality every time - until they do a quality review and then criticise you for doing quantity over quality!
No, you can't win!!
That's entirely a problem of HMRC's making. They chose the bollocks known as 'Building Our Future' (a meaningless phrase the low IQ management stole from elsewhere).
ReplyDeleteThey chose to lose a vast amount of experience - whether through mass office closures, or through the toxic staff bullying culture.
Unfortunately, until they have proper leaders, and until they sort out the out of control misconduct, things will continue to get worse.
Senior Management are like headless chickens when it comes to off shore "tip offs", such as the Panama Papers
ReplyDeleteThey have lost a vast number of officers from Criminal Investigation, either to those jumping ship for the FSA of SFO or promotion. So have few to investigate the more complex stuff, but have lots of totally inexperienced investigators to look at the low hanging fruits.
Senior management were warned of this when BOF raised its ugly head, but chose to ignore what they were being told.
The standard of training for new staff in FIS handling criminal investigations was shocking. The majority of those they took on three years ago have left.
ReplyDeleteRecruitment was simply "bums on seats" with no thought as to a training plan for each of them. Many are STILL wanting to do the specialist courses for them to become an effective member of the team. Many trainee officers who showed an aptitude for the work left simply because they were frustrated and not getting the training.
Management were warned of this at the outset of the recruitment campaign, and will never be able to backfill the posts that experienced officers have been promoted from or retired from.
Back in the day, criminal investigation was regarded as a specialism that even an exceptionally good officer may not be suited to temperamentally.
ReplyDeleteThen, bizarrely, it became just another job which anyone with a good report marking in a call centre or clerical factory must be able to do.
No better example of the utter cluelessness of higher management when it comes to the day to day work of the department.