Wednesday, 26 April 2023

HMRC Official Let Off For Breaching Legal Embargo

 


A senior policy adviser with HMRC who emailed an embargoed result of a judgement around Whitehall has avoided any further action.

The unnamed individual had received a draft of a judgement where the Home Office and HMRC had been the defendants, then proceeded to email various government departments revealing the favourable outcome.

In World Uyghur Congress (2) v Secretary of State for the Home Department & Ors, Mr Justice Dove said this individual had failed to read and observe important instructions under which the draft judgment had been provided.

The breach, he said, was short-lived and rapidly closed down by the Government Legal Department, but the judge said this was a ‘noteworthy and cautionary incident’ with lessons for all involved in litigation.

The draft of the first judgement had been circulated in January to counsel and solicitors for the purposes of obtaining editorial changes. It had been made clear this was confidential and that neither the draft nor its substance should be disclosed.

The GLD circulated the draft to a ‘limited number’ of people at the Home Office, HMRC and National Crime Agency (the other defendant). It was again made clear in the email that the contents should not be shared.

Nevertheless, a policy officer at HMRC (to whom the draft judgement had been sent by the GLD) wrote to individuals in the Home Office, the Department for International trade, the Cabinet Office and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development office to say the result had been favourable.

His witness statement explained that ‘I did this because I was acting on the mistaken assumption as to the nature of embargo judgements generally, and due to pressure of work.’ 

He expressed his deep regret that at the time of receiving the embargo draft judgement he did not take the time to properly read the instructions which accompanied it.


Tax does have to be taxing.

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Monday, 24 April 2023

HMRC Names Marquee Ltd As A Tax Avoidance Scheme



Tax does have to be taxing.

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Wednesday, 19 April 2023

LITRG's 40 Pillars of Wisdom


 

Given that tax professionals have enough trouble trying to understand tax legislation and deal with HMRC, it is hardly surprising that the hapless taxpayers are completely at sea.

As such, the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group have come up with 40 recommendations  Good Guidance: The importance of effective guidance for unrepresented taxpayers, that they hope HMRC will adhere to in order to help the hapless taxpayers who fund the state and its organs. 

Here are the first 10 recommendations, the full report can be accessed via the link above.

Recommendation 1: The level of technical detail offered by a page of guidance should be immediately clear when landing on a page. 

Recommendation 2: HMRC should publish guidelines to help guidance writers decide what matters and circumstances to include and exclude. 

Recommendation 3: HMRC should consider how their user testing can be expanded to determine whether users get to the right answer, not just whether they find guidance easy to use. 

Recommendation 4: HMRC and GDS should review ‘user need’ requirements from the perspective of unrepresented taxpayers, to ensure they do not represent a barrier to effective guidance being published for this group. 

Recommendation 5: The GOV.UK feedback route which offers a reply to the user should be easier to find. 

Recommendation 6: HMRC should design and implement an ongoing process to help proactively identify areas where guidance is missing, and rectify these areas as soon as they are identified. 

Recommendation 7: Whenever any changes or new policies are introduced, there should be a published guidance assessment to ensure that any associated guidance is as complete as possible. 

Recommendation 8: The search function on GOV.UK should be much improved to ensure users are directed to the most appropriate pages, potentially by working with commercial search engines to improve underlying technologies behind it. 

Recommendation 9: Guidance should always clearly state its intended audience and scope. 

Recommendation 10: Where exceptions apply, links should be provided to more information on those exceptions

I wish the LITRG good luck in trying to get HMRC to implement these, given that had HMRC followed its charter the recommendations would in the main be unnecessary!

Tax does have to be taxing.

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Wednesday, 12 April 2023

HMRC's Impossible £185K Loan Charge Demand


 

A contractor has received from HMRC, detailing a request for £185,840 – something he called the “impossible demand” 

Dated the 24th March 2023, the letter requested that its recipient pay the sum “no later than 23 April 2023” – giving the self-employed worker just 30 days to pay.

!!!

Tax does have to be taxing.

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Tuesday, 11 April 2023

One in Three Calls To HMRC Not Answered


 

Service levels at HMRC have worsened.

One in three calls to HMRC are now not answered compared with 27.8% in January. 

The majority of callers waited more than 10 minutes for an answer, equating to the worst performance since April 2022. 

The average pick-up time now stands at 21 minutes and 40 seconds compared to 12 minutes 35 seconds a year ago.

Slow hand clap of derision for HMRC!

Tax does have to be taxing.

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  • Attend any meeting with HMRC
  • Appeal to the First-tier Tribunal or Upper Tribunal
  • Having the security of knowing that fees will be met in full will enable your Accountant (your tax return agent) to defend your position robustly

Please click here for details.

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Thursday, 6 April 2023

HMRC's Chinese Whispers


 

HMRC⁩ has admitted to MPs that it allowed 11,000 Chinese firms to register for VAT at a single residential flat in Wales without checking who lived there.

It was only discovered when the owner received 580 letters from HMRC asking for £500K in VAT payments.

Well done lads!

Tax does have to be taxing.

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A Solar Protect policy will enable your accountant (your tax return agent) to:

  • Deal with any correspondence from HMRC
  • Attend any meeting with HMRC
  • Appeal to the First-tier Tribunal or Upper Tribunal
  • Having the security of knowing that fees will be met in full will enable your Accountant (your tax return agent) to defend your position robustly

Please click here for details.

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