Cameron's Moral Outrage

In June 2012 I wrote about the howls of moral outrage emanating from David Cameron about Jimmy Carr's tax avoidance scheme.

Cameron boldly proclaimed to the world that Jimmy Carr's tax arrangement "isn't morally right". 

I also noted:

"I would also remind the Prime Minister that raising a hue and cry over tax avoidance (eg in the form of the investigation of civil servants on off payroll schemes) is all very well, but what happens when your proud boasts to end these schemes come to nowt?.....

...Cameron has got himself well and truly stuck on top of the Savage Mountain (aka K2), not only will his "promises" to deal with these schemes come to nowt, but he has effectively declared open season on every Tory MP, every Tory candidate and every Tory donor. The media and other interested parties will pore over their finances with a fine tooth-comb, and one by one every single tax avoidance scheme (that the PM finds "immoral") will be made public (I guarantee there are hundreds of Tory MPs and Tory donors etc using these such schemes).
Cameron has lost touch with reality, in a desperate attempt to grab a soundbite and pander to the anti avoidance lobby.
To repeat what I said yesterday:

"Avoidance is a perfectly normal human thing to try to do, the politicians are not in a position to lecture the rest of us on "morality."

A politician lecturing us on morality is as natural as a cat walking on its hind legs."

In July 2012 I wrote:

"David Gauke said that the government will name and shame wealthy people who use "aggressive" tax avoidance schemes. Gauke went on to say that companies offering such products will be forced to hand over details of their clients."

Fast forward to 2016, and it transpires that Cameron had a modest holding in an offshore fund (set up by his father) which he sold in 2010. 

Now of course there is nothing illegal in that. However, to have spent some years venting his spleen against tax avoidance makes him look a tad hypocritical does it not?

As I have noted on several occasions on this site, politicians who rage against tax avoidance will one day find that their public moralising will come back to bite them on their arses; as a politician lecturing us on morality is as natural as a cat walking on its hind legs!

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



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There Is Nothing Like a Dame Lin Homer - The Disgrace That is #HomerGate

Another New Year approaches, and with it another set of New Year honours.

Normally the honours attract a degree of admiration and ridicule, depending on who has been awarded one and on the political perspective of those viewing the honours list.

However, this year marks a turning point in which the entire country has been royally taken the piss out of by the award of a Damehood to Lin Homer.

Homer's "career" (if it can be described as such) is a series of increasingly appalling car crashes of spectacular incompetence, as she climbs the slippery slope of civil service power and authority. Now, to add insult to injury, she has been awarded a Damehood for her work in HMRC.

This surely is an insult to every member of staff of HMRC and every taxpayer; ie it is an insult to the entire country.

Normally honours are awarded to those who have left office, to those who have done something useful or to those who are chums with the PM. However, as far as I can see, Homer is none of these.

Therefore I can only conclude that she was given the award for one (or a combination) of the following reasons:

1 Cameron is a closet republican, and wants to bring the system into such disrepute that it is abolished.

2 Cameron wants to take people's attention away from Crosby's honour.

3 Homer was about to leave, and the award is a bribe to keep her in office long enough so that she can be blamed when HMRC inevitably collapses.

4 Homer knows where the bodies are buried in HMRC, and it's a bribe to keep her quiet.

Whatever the reason, it's a fucking disgrace!

Thoughts and comments are very much appreciated.

Incidentally, a twitter chum of mine who is a journalist is seeking confirmation (for an article that he is penning) that Homer is on PAYE. I assume that she is, but please could someone confirm this?

Thanks.

Happy New Year!



Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

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

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

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

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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Songs For HMRC Raiding Your Bank Account

Elaine Clark of CheapAccounting has made a list of ten songs for HMRC raiding people's bank accounts, eg "Take The Money and Run" by the Steve Miller Band.

Now that the media and politicians have finally woken up to the possible ramifications of this proposal, Cameron was forced to come out and try to defend it. His "rationale" being that taxes would have to go up if the powers were not granted.

I wonder if he can provide the exact amount of extra tax revenue that is expected to be raised, in the event that these powers are granted?

Meanwhile on Twitter:

HMRC owe me a tax refund, its on my statement, I've requested it several times over last 6 months. Can I now raid the Treasury bank account?
— Fiona Hotston Moore (@hotstonmoore) May 12, 2014

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



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Putting Things Right - Where Is The Justice?

My thanks to a loyal reader who gave me permission to publish a letter that she sent to:

- Dan Rogerson

- David Cameron

- Nick Clegg

- Ed Miliband

- Margaret Hodge

- David Gauke

- Lin Homer (e-mail)

- The Adjudicator

- Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

She won a tribunal against HMRC regarding child benefits and tax credits. However, she is still waiting for HMRC to "put things right" and 13 months after raising the matter with the Adjudicator is still waiting for a result; as the Adjudicator's Office is overwhelmed with casework.

To add insult to injury, having emailed Cameron two weeks ago about the situation, her email was answered by HMRC telling her to raise the matter with the Adjudicator.

Here is the text of her letter, with locations edited out in order to protect her identity.

"Just over 3 years ago my daughter and I fled the controlling clutches of her Police Sergeant father in **** to the edge of *******.

Together with HMRC, he had made life so difficult for us we had no choice other to leave our family home and start a new life hundreds of miles away where the only person I knew was my father.  3 years later and with my daughter now 6 years old life is very pleasant and the battles between her father and me have been resolved, but not without years of heartache, distress, solicitors and tribunals caused by my daughter’s father and the actions of HMRC.

I am writing this letter because, despite having unfinished business with HMRC in waiting for their apology, it has become clear that I am not the only person to have part of my life destroyed.  Because HMRC is attempting to cost cut and in doing so is destroying families and driving them to despair, with their decisions made wholly to save money.

The 250 mile move has led me to another mother suffering the same at the hands of her controlling police officer ex partner in ****.  HMRC’s award of Child Benefit and Tax credits to the high earning officer, over the part time minimum wage mother, is confirmation of my suspicions that this is a cost saving exercise for HMRC.  I battled HMRC for over 2 years to prove they were wrong in their decision, which they made on this basis.

A tribunal took 5 minutes to agree with me WHILST THE HRMC REPRESENTATIVE AGREED WITH THE JUDGE MUMBLING ‘I’M NOT SURE WHY WE’RE HERE!!!!!’  Hell and my life destroyed, leaving our friends and family, the village I grew up in, our home (previously MY grandparents), filling each day with letters and evidence gathering day after day for 2 years whilst struggling as a single mother, ink, paper, postage, photocopying, telephone calls mounting on my credit card bill, overdraft, interest, frustrated telephone calls to a call centre, being misinformed by HMRC staff, constantly being told that my call couldn’t be escalated to any senior person, hours trying to entertain my 3 year old daughter whilst dealing with paperwork and making phone calls, time and money lost in travelling to tribunals, my daughter’s first trick or treating missed, the list goes on………to hear those sorry words from HRMC ‘I’m not sure why we’re here’.  I want to scream as I write this remembering the torture and pain I was going through.

The 13 months which have passed since my complaint was initiated with the adjudicator has given me nothing other than telephone calls with the adjudicator telling me that they are so inundated with complaints they have no idea when mine can be investigated.  This needs to be resolved and is a matter of public concern.  The adjudicator cannot cope with the volume of complaints.

Nearly two 2 years later, and having won my tribunal against HMRC, they should have put things right as they advocate in their ‘Putting Things Right’ leaflet.  Seeing my whole situation playing out in the new town I have moved to, with another set of parents shows I am not a ‘one off’.  HMRC have learnt nothing and continue to make things wrong, far from putting things right.  Somebody needs to take control of this situation.

My e-mail to 10 Downing Street 2 weeks ago, highlighting the waiting time for the adjudicator, was UNBELIEVABLY responded to by HMRC telling me that I needed to direct my enquiry to the adjudicator.  What an ABSOLUTE joke and a course of action which I am utterly disgusted with.  Mr Cameron you have let me down and there are many more people suffering too whist this is being ignored.

Can somebody please help us?"

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



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RTI and Universal Credits

As loyal readers know, RTI and Universal Credits are all part of the same beast and the fates of both affect the government, HMRC and the DWP.

The overall aim of PAYE Real Time Information and Universal Credits is to make the administration easier for HMRC and DWP and to reduce fraud by ensuring that employees and businesses pay tax more accurately, whilst claimants receive the benefits to which they are entitled.

Thus it is interesting to note that Cameron has publicly indicated that the UC deadline of 2017, being zealously proselytised by Iain Duncan Smith, may in fact not really be achievable.

Gosh, really?

Cameron told the Commons work and pension select committee that he was not "religious" about plans to roll out the universal credit across the country by 2017.

He is quoted by the Guardian:

"The secretary of state was questioned very closely in the House of Commons. That is the department's position – they are shooting for 2017.

But the key thing is getting the early part of the introduction right. The more you can test out and hold pathfinders and get people on to universal budget and then start to take existing benefit recipients on to universal credit – the more you can get that right in the early years, the more chance you have of hitting your target of total rollout.

My view is this is a good reform that will make work pay, that is widely supported across politics and other sectors. So we need to get it right. But we shouldn't be religious about timings. We should be religious as it were about the overall concept of what we are trying to do."

Personally speaking I don't think governments should be "religious" at all, they should be pragmatic.


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"

A Little Bit of Politics - The Winds of War

As an interesting aside to last night's defeat of the government's plans to launch punitive strikes on Syria in the coming days side by side with the USA, one of the Tory "no shows" in the vote was our old chum David Gauke (as per Guido Fawkes).

Methinks that if Cameron survives, in the short term, there will most assuredly be a reshuffle of those who did not stand by their leader.

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 Recycled Money

In June 2012 I quoted David Cameron waxing lyrical about tax avoidance:

"For instance we have put £900m extra into HMRC to enable them to go after aggressive tax avoidance."

As per Channel 4 News today HMRC admit that the £900M was not new investment:

"When we asked the HMRC to explain the give and take in their budgets, they admitted that it was actually “recycled” money."

Snort!

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



Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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 Colombian Standoff With Ipsa

I am gemused to see that our "respected" and "morally erect" MPs (the group of people who like to  lecture the rest of us on the immorality of tax avoidance) have got themselves into hot water with HMRC.

It seems that, quite correctly, HMRC are a tad worried that MPs are claiming accountancy fees on expenses; these claims for fees might amount to taxable benefits, as opposed to work related costs.

MPs, being the "morally erect" citizens that they are,  have countered the allegation via the expenses watchdog (the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority - Ipsa) asserting that they are business expenses.

FYI the costs being claimed are up to £5K per annum per MP.

The Guardian reports that HMRC have repeatedly told Ipsa that other employees are not allowed to claim back professional fees or the tax, and MPs should not be given special dispensation.

Ipsa insists that MPs are more akin to small businesses, which can reclaim such costs.

Funny that, I didn't know that public service was in fact a "business"!

Anyhoo, there is now a "Colombian standoff" between Ipsa and HMRC; it will be interesting to see who blinks first.

Now what was it Cameron, Gauke et al were saying about tax avoidance???

Tax does have to be taxing.



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TAXWISE 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 Taxwise



Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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Tax Avoidance Poll

Tax does have to be taxing.




Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise



Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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 Strike

Cameron and the anti avoidance zealots will be most distressed to learn that approximately 55,000 HMRC staff are going on strike over job cuts and "creeping privatisation". Sky Tyne and Wear are of the view that the strike has been inspired by Jimmy Carr (a rather daft idea, given that the vote was taken sometime before Carrgate).

Anyhoo, the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union members are protesting about plans to cut 10,000 HMRC posts by 2014/2015.

Ironically, according to the union, the strike is also being used as a warning against cutting resources futher; as PCS is of the view that the cuts increase the loss of tax via illegal tax evasion and via legal tax avoidance schemes.

The former point has validity, the second doesn't as tax avoidance is (by definiton) legal and legislation as to what is legal/illegal is the domain of the politicians not HMRC or PCS.

HMRC are quoted by the BBC:

"We are seeking dialogue with the PCS to address their concerns and will work to minimise any disruption to our customers.

In our 2010 spending review the government made £917m available to us to tackle avoidance, evasion and fraud. This is being used to increase our tax take from compliance work by £7bn a year in 2014/15 which we are on target to do."

The strike means that phone calls in affected offices may well go unanswered ('cough'), it will be followed by other forms of action such as a ban on overtime.

Tax does have to be taxing.



Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise



Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

K2 The Savage Mountain - Cameron Castigates Carr's Morality

It would appear that David Cameron did not read my article yesterday, about Jimmy Carr's K2 tax avoidance scheme, in which I warned David Gauke that:

"Avoidance is a perfectly normal human thing to try to do, the politicians are not in a position to lecture the rest of us on "morality".

Cue David Cameron who, wading in without thinking for one moment about the consequences, boldly proclaimed to the world that Jimmy Carr's tax arrangement "isn't morally right". 




Rather amusingly it does seem that Ed Miliband has in fact read my article, for in the Telegraph he is quoted as saying:

"I'm not in favour of tax avoidance obviously, but I don't think it is for politicians to lecture people about morality."

He is quite right (bloody hell, I'm agreeing with Miliband!), a politician lecturing us on morality is as natural as a cat walking on its hind legs.

I would remind Cameron that, whilst none of his income (from his job, his trust funds, his inheritance etc etc) may not be reduced by "morally repugnant" perfectly legal tax arrangements, many of his fellow Tory MPs and indeed many of his party's donors may well use such schemes themselves (eg Sir Philip Green). 

I would also remind the Prime Minister that raising a hue and cry over tax avoidance (eg in the form of the investigation of civil servants on off payroll schemes) is all very well, but what happens when your proud boasts to end these schemes come to nowt?

I refer to two issues:

1 The fact that HMRC pay some of its own staff off payroll, yet will not be investigating them:

"Given that some of HMRC's staff are also "off payroll":

"HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) announced that nine staff has been paid ‘off-payroll’ and that since the discovery by Exaro News three of these positions have ended. 350 contracts that have paid civil servants ‘off-payroll’ have also ended; 35 civil servants have continued working under new terms and conditions." 

I wonder if HMRC will also be investigating them?

I suspect not, as HMRC have the get out clause of "high risk" and also will not be pursuing those whose arrangements have been sanctioned by HMRC.

In other words HMRC has placed itself outside of its own investigation."

2 The HMRC investigation into the hundreds of council officials who are working off payroll has been blocked.

Exaro News reports that despite pledges from ministers to crack down on councils paying senior staff through personal-service companies, they have been powerless to halt such tax-beneficial contracts. Instead, they have merely issued fresh Whitehall guidance on pay arrangements.

Eric Pickles, communities and local government secretary, wrote to the Local Government Association (LGA), which represents councils in England and Wales, about officials’ contracts.

However, no one has asked the LGA to find out which council officials had tax-beneficial contracts.

Does this matter?

Yes, because it means that without such a review HMRC will not be able to carry out the similar exercise that it is doing for the 2,400 civil servants on off payroll schemes (excluding its own staff of course!).

Cameron has got himself well and truly stuck on top of the Savage Mountain (aka K2), not only will his "promises" to deal with these schemes come to nowt, but he has effectively declared open season on every Tory MP, every Tory candidate and every Tory donor. The media and other interested parties will pore over their finances with a fine tooth-comb, and one by one every single tax avoidance scheme (that the PM finds "immoral") will be made public (I guarantee there are hundreds of Tory MPs and Tory donors etc using these such schemes).

Cameron has lost touch with reality, in a desperate attempt to grab a soundbite and pander to the anti avoidance lobby.

To repeat what I said yesterday:

"Avoidance is a perfectly normal human thing to try to do, the politicians are not in a position to lecture the rest of us on "morality."

A politician lecturing us on morality is as natural as a cat walking on its hind legs. 

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise



Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

Gauke Gets Trapped On K2 (The Savage Mountain)

I see that our old chum Treasury Minister David Gauke has vented his spleen on the Jimmy Carr K2 tax avoidance issue.

His comments come after The Times sent an undercover reporter to a tax seminar, which outlined a scheme known as K2. The Times says comedian Jimmy Carr is one of those who uses the scheme, although his lawyers stress he has done nothing wrong.

Avoidance and, for the moment, the K2 scheme is perfectly legal.

However, that did not stop Gauke from commenting (based on what he read in the media, rather on what he actually has discussed with HMRC or other tax/legal experts) saying that he would describe the K2 scheme as fitting into the chancellor's description of "morally repugnant".

He is quoted by the BBC:

"Where there are arrangements that are artificial, that are contrived, that are not undertaken for any genuine commercial reason, but are purely designed to reduce tax liability, then that is something that we want to address.

Graham Aaronson has rightly highlighted his proposals for a general anti-abuse rule, which we are taking forward and, actually, the government is doing an awful lot in this area.

If you look at international comparisons actually HMRC performs pretty well in terms of yield and the size of the tax gap, but there's more to do.

My understanding is that HMRC were already investigating this particular scheme and, although I don't want to be drawn too much into the specifics, a lot of what has been said about how this scheme operates is the sort of thing that actually doesn't work any more.

Very often you get these promoters who will be, of course, selling their product... it doesn't always work quite as effectively as they like to make out to their potential clients. So I know HMRC are on the case on this particular matter."

I would remind Gauke, and his fellow cabinet ministers, of what I wrote in April, on another site, about the dangers of politicians digging themselves into holes wrt tax avoidance:

"David Cameron dug himself into another hole today, by discussing his dislike of "aggressive tax avoidance" (which of course is perfectly legal).

Tax Journal reports that John Humphys noted on this morning’s Today programme that the Chancellor said in the Budget that he regarded tax evasion and ‘aggressive tax avoidance’ as ‘morally repugnant’.

He was trying to clarify, he said, what the government meant by ‘aggressive tax avoidance’ and offered Cameron a case study:

 "A very successful businessman (you’ll know who I’m talking about) creates a structure that transfers most of the ownership of [his] company to his wife through offshore companies based in the Channel Islands. She lives in Monaco, he takes a huge dividend – it’s paid to her, it’s estimated that this reduces his tax bill by hundreds of millions of pounds.’

Humphrys asked: ‘Is that “aggressive tax avoidance” and therefore morally repugnant?’

Cameron declined several times to answer the question, saying he was not going to discuss an individual’s tax affairs. Humphrys said Cameron knew that the individual was Sir Philip Green, whom Cameron recruited to advise the government.

Cameron said he did not know Green’s tax affairs and offered his own definition.

‘There are things that people do that reduce their tax liability, for instance they put money into a pension scheme.’

‘Rather than Monaco,’ Humphrys said.

‘Absolutely,’ Cameron said. ‘I think putting money into a pension scheme is a sensible thing to encourage people to do and that doesn’t count as aggressive tax avoidance … I’m very clear about the difference between putting money into pension schemes or Enterprise Investment Schemes to help start-up businesses, and there is that form of tax avoidance where people are almost specifically setting up a company in order to avoid tax rather than actually wanting to invest in start-ups and the rest of it.’

The government had taken a lot of steps to try to reduce ‘this sort of activity’, Cameron added. ‘For instance we have put £900m extra into HMRC to enable them to go after aggressive tax avoidance.’

Aggressive tax avoidance was wrong, he said. ‘It’s right that the government is going after this activity. Everyone should pay their taxes properly.’

Generally speaking, he told Humphrys, it was ‘sensible’ for a Prime Minister not to have dealings with people engaged in aggressive tax avoidance."

So there you have it folks, "aggressive tax avoidance" is whatever the government chooses to define as "aggressive tax avoidance"; the fact that it is perfectly legal seems to escape them.

Georgie Porgie and Cameron need to be reminded of the wise words of Lord Templeman in 1992:

"There is no morality in a tax and no illegality or immorality in a tax avoidance scheme.""

I leave the final word to Christie Malry who tweeted:

"If tax was voluntary and paid by the consumer, none of you would opt to pay it. So, seriously, shut the hell up about tax avoidance."

Avoidance is a perfectly normal human thing to try to do, the politicians are not in a position to lecture the rest of us on "morality".

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise



Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

Hanging on the Telephone - Chaos and Incompetence

As loyal readers know, despite the "best efforts" of Pacesetter, it can sometimes be a "tad problematic" getting through to HMRC on the phone.

Well now it seems that HMRC's political masters are finally getting that point as well. Shadow Treasury minister Owen Smith obtained figures on HMRC call waiting times (by tabling parliamentary questions), which he said showed "chaos and incompetence" in the system.

Although HMRC's helpline is automatically answered within a few rings, callers are then given a range of options and often spend a considerable time on hold. The waiting time now is so long that one in four people apparently hangs up before being connected to an adviser.

The figures show that taxpayers now have to wait an average of more than four minutes to speak to human being in HMRC, compared to one minute and 31 seconds in 2010. In the run up to the end of the tax filing deadline in January, the average wait increases to more than five minutes.

MPs are now getting jittery about this well known failure, because taxpayers (ie the voters) are contacting them about the problem.

The Telegraph quotes Owen Smith: 

"With average call waiting times almost trebling in the last two years, this is yet more evidence of chaos and incompetence in government.

Families with children are facing massive cuts to tax credits and are set to lose an average of £511 a year as a result of the unfair policies of this out of touch Tory-led Government. So it's outrageous that they are waiting longer and often struggling to get through for much needed information and advice.

These costly delays are also unacceptable for families, pensioners and businesses trying to give HMRC information to ensure they are paying the right amount of tax or getting the correct level of tax credits. With the economy now back in recession because of David Cameron and George Osborne's economic mistakes and complicated changes to child benefit just a few months away, ministers urgently need to get a grip."

An HMRC spokeswoman said:

"During busy periods, there will be times when customers find it more difficult to get through.

We are working hard to improve contact centre service levels and have made good progress. We are managing busy periods better by deploying extra people to deal with short-term increases in demand."

The Exchequer secretary, David Gauke (who features on this site regularly) tried to claim that everything was fine:

"HMRC does not have a target time for answering telephone calls.

HMRC uses a variety of measures to assess the accessibility of telephone services, which include the percentage of call attempts handled by its contact centres.

In 2011/12, HMRC has significantly improved the number of call attempts handled to 74% (compared to the 48% in the previous year)."

The "good news" is that by 2014 everything really will be fine, according to a written Parliamentary answer from Gauke:

"HMRC recognises there are further improvements to be made and aim to achieve 90% of call attempts handled by 2014/15."

Snort!

Maybe "Auto-Wrap-Up" (if it existed) would be a good idea then?;)

Folks the only way to push for an improvement is to ensure that your MPs know exactly what is going on and going wrong; keep the pressure up on them, otherwise nothing will get done!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise



Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

In Which The Prime Minister Talks Bollocks

My thanks to a loyal reader who pointed me in the direction of a particular piece of bollocks spoken by the Prime Minister (seen here on the left), on 19th April, wrt staffing levels at HMRC.

Seemingly, in the Prime Minister's world, staffing levels at HMRC have "increased":

“We have actually increased staffing levels at Revenue and Customs.”

David Cameron came out with this nonsense when he was responding to a question from Labour MP Teresa Pearce.

Ms Pearce was highlighting something that loyal readers of this site know very well, namely that  10,000 staff are to be cut from HMRC despite the fact that hundreds of thousands more people are being brought into the tax system and the fact that is evident from issues wrt codings, call centre problems, letter delays etc etc that HMRC can't cope now let alone in the future.

How on earth the could the Prime Minister say something that is quite so obviously bollocks?

Channel 4 News have gamely tried to give him some wiggle room, they note that the Chancellor has allowed HMRC to spend £917M from the efficiency savings, as long as it promised to bring in an extra £7BN a year.

That spending will, according to the National Audit Office (NAO), reduce the real terms cut in running costs from 25% to 16.5% and limit job losses to 10,000 instead of a potential 19,000.

In other words the PM was saying that the reduced headcount is not as bad as it could have been.

Well then!

I leave it to my loyal readers to decide individually as to whether the PM was talking bollocks.

To my mind, and of course I am biased, I think that he was talking bollocks and that it is clear the politicians have no idea how bad things are going to become wrt HMRC and its interactions with the taxpaying voters!

Like it or not, HMRC (as is the NHS) is one of the few government agency that we all have to deal with. Therefore when things go wrong, and they will, people will quite rightly blame the government.


Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise



Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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 Avoidance Hypocrisy - The Ed Lester Debacle

As we all know, the government is skint. Therefore over the last year or so the government and its bureaucratic arm, HMRC, have been doing their best to promote the idea that tax avoidance (which, unlike tax evasion, is perfectly legal) is somehow akin to tax evasion and morally wrong, and have attempted to whip the media up into a moralistic crusade against avoidance.

In January this year Cameron said the following:

"I think we need a tougher approach and one of the things we’re going to be looking at this year is whether there’s going to be a more general anti-avoidance power that HMRC can use, particularly on very wealthy individuals."


This of course is rather hypocritical, given that many MPs sit on boards of companies that operate tax avoidance schemes.

Anyhoo, imagine my amusement last night when coming home from the pub and settling down to watch Newsnight only to discover that the government and HMRC have happily signed off on a tax avoidance scheme.

Ed Lester, the CEO of the Student Loans Company, is happily receiving his £182K per annum without deductions for tax or National Insurance.

How?

He is using a tax avoidance scheme, whereby his pay is is transferred gross to his private service company, which has been signed off by HMRC!

This is the same HMRC that has been bleating that tax avoidance is somehow morally wrong!

In classic damage limitation mode, feigning surprise and shock, Danny "Beaker" Alexander has ordered an inquiry. Rather pointless given that the state signed off on this deal, ie the state knows about it.

Beaker claims that he was "not made aware" of the potential tax benefits to Mr Lester when he approved his appointment and salary levels.

Bollocks!

Mr Lester's deal was signed off by Universities Minister David Willetts and was passed to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Beaker Alexander for approval because his salary was above the prime minister's pay.

By the way, those in government and HMRC who are claiming that this is a one off had better take a stress pill or two, there will be others outed in the coming days who also have a similar arrangement.

Hypocrisy from the state and its bureaucratic arm (HMRC), who would have thought it?

Therefore, despite the bleating by HMRC and the anti avoidance campaign pushed by the state and HMRC, have no qualms about using tax avoidance schemes; the fact that the government and HMRC signed this one off shows that they perfectly happy that people use them, they just don't have the guts to admit it.

UPDATE

In the fallout from this clusterfuck of hypocrisy, the government has just announced that Ed Lester will now have his tax deducted from his income at source!

Tax does have to be taxing.

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Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise



Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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 £100K Giveaway

Despite Stephen Hardwick's assertion that penalties are the correct way to encourage people to submit their tax returns and pay their taxes on time:

"We use penalties purely to encourage on-time filing."

It seems that others are willing to think outside of the box, and use other means to encourage on time filing and early payment of tax liabilities.

Cameron's Behavioural Insight Team have proposed that anyone who files their tax return, two months early, could have a chance at a £100,000 prize.

Let's see if this ever gets off the drawing board then!

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

Cameron On Tax Avoidance

I see that David Cameron has jumped onto the anti tax avoidance bandwagon, now seemingly rather popular with our political "elite".

Cameron was at a "PM Direct" event with small business this morning. The Huffington Post quotes him as saying that the government needs a "tougher approach" to tax avoidance (tax avoidance is legal, tax evasion is illegal).

He stated that HMRC needed to make sure big companies paid "their fair share".

Adding:

"I think we need a tougher approach and one of the things we’re going to be looking at this year is whether there’s going to be a more general anti-avoidance power that HMRC can use, particularly on very wealthy individuals."

Cameron added that HMRC should think about being "business friendly to small business".

A few points:

1 Tax avoidance is legal, and has been part of the system since day one.

Why now are our political "elite" suddenly so vexed about it, especially as so many of them are on the boards of the companies that seek to minimise their tax payments via legitimate tax arrangements?

The "elite" have been part and parcel of tax avoidance schemes employed by large companies since day one.

2 What exactly does Cameron mean by "fair share"? Either you are paying the taxes as prescribed by the law or you are not.

3 Taxes, and HMRC, all come under the control of our elected representatives; it is time that they accepted their responsibility for the mess that our tax system is in.

4 "Business friendly to small business" starts with cutting government red tape and simplifying the tax system. When exactly does the government intend to start doing this?


Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

Nudge Theory

I see that HMRC are indulging in some psychological tricks (known as "nudge theory") in an effort to increase tax take. The mind control techniques are being devised by a special unit set up by Cameron which, oddly enough, the government refuses to disclose the activities or membership of.

As per The Independent:

"One experiment involved Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) secretly changing the wording of tens of thousands of tax letters, leading to the collection of an extra £200m in income tax....

...tax officials who reinforce "norms" dramatically increase their collection rates. The authorities tend to be "quite aggressive and assertive" when chasing late payers, Dr Halpern said. "We will send you a rude letter and say: 'We're going to come and find you and break down your door and take away your children.' So [HMRC] officials had been reading a bit of [nudge] literature and they changed letters on just one block of letters [chasing] £600m in unpaid tax.

"The normal repayment rate is about 50 per cent. The [new] letter says: '94 per cent of people pay their tax on time', so now you emphasis the underlying social norm – and then: 'Even if one person doesn't it has a significant impact'. The repayment rate went up to 85 per cent, [collecting] £200m just in that experiment."

The state never ceases to try to control people, whther by legislation or mind games.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

I've Got A Little List

Yesterday David Cameron released a list of civil servants who are paid more than him. Here is an extract, showing those who are in HMRC:

Mike Clasper
Chair HM Revenue & Customs
Non-executive
HM Revenue & Customs
£150,000 - £154,999
3 days per week

Steve Lamey
Director General Benefits & Credits
Director General
HM Revenue & Customs
£205,000 - £209,999

Simon Bowles
Chief Finance Officer
Director General
HM Revenue & Customs
£185,000 - £189,999

Phil Pavitt
Chief Information Officer
Director General
HM Revenue & Customs
£180,000 - £184,999

Mike Falvey
Chief People Officer
Director General
HM Revenue & Customs
£175,000 - £179,999

Lesley Strathie
Chief Executive Officer
Permanent Secretary
HM Revenue & Customs
£170,000 - £174,999

Dave Hartnett
Permanent Secretary For Tax
Permanent Secretary
HM Revenue & Customs
£160,000 - £164,999

Source: BBC

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"