HMRC Fail To ID MSPs as Scottish!

The most obvious of Scottish Taxpayers fail to be classed as ‘Scottish Taxpayers’ by HMRC. That’s only an error rate of 35%. Jim Harra ‘not pleased’ pic.twitter.com/MA75bKoho5

— Gordon Berry (@wealthagent) May 10, 2019

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

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

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

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

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

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

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



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Who Knew?

#HMRC defended its implementation of devolved income tax rates as tax professionals reported errors in identification of Scottish taxpayers https://t.co/bfTbk8x67k // me for @TaxNotes ($) on @NAOorguk report ...

— Andrew Goodall (@agoodall4) January 25, 2019

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"

Scotland's Budget Further Complicates The Tax System

The Scottish Parliament has passed its Budget Bill for 2018/19, which introduces five tax bands and rates for Scottish taxpayers. These new rates will have knock-on effects for certain income tax reliefs and allowances.

Rebecca Cave has identified a particular complication wrt the marriage allowance:

"The marriage allowance is causing some headaches within HMRC, as it can only be claimed by couples where the higher earner pays no more than the basic rate of tax (rest of UK rate). However, for Scottish taxpayers the basic rate band will be divided into the starter rate (19%), basic rate (20%) and the intermediate rate (21%) in 2018/19.

It is likely that a claim for the marriage allowance will remain valid for all Scottish taxpayers who pay tax at less than the Scottish higher rate (41%), but that has yet to be decided."

Good luck to the taxpayers of Scotland and HMRC in sorting this out!


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"

Well Observed Elaine!

Oh bloody hell that's buggers everything up

BBC News - Scottish income tax changes unveiled https://t.co/jto9huTFDC

— Elaine Clark (@cheapaccounting) December 14, 2017

This complicates the UK's already massively over complex tax system!

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"

S Code Problems In Scotland

The role out of the new Scottish tax codes is not going so smoothly.

As per HMRC:

Annual coding run (P9 - tax regime)

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are aware of an issue which is under urgent investigation whereby customers who are expecting to receive the new Scottish S code for employees, are not seeing this information when downloading into their third party software. As soon as HMRC have the fix and recovery solution confirmed HMRC will update you.

This means that employers are unable to comply with HMRC requirements under the annual coding run (P9 regime – which enables employers to revise employee codes in time for the start of the new tax year on 6 April).

Oops!

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 Secret Scottish Letters

HMRC will be sending out approximately 2.2 million letters, between 2nd and 11th of December, to those people that it has identified as being Scottish.

However, for reasons best known to HMRC, the letters will contain no reply address or phone number.

As per Kate Upcraft:

"Following on from the announcement that the Scottish Rate of Income Tax (SRIT) will be made public as part of the Scottish parliament budget on 16th December, HMRC have informed stakeholders what their timetable of comms will be. 

A letter will be sent to the 2.2m taxpayers that HMRC have identified as Scottish between 2nd and 11th December. The letter will confirm that based on their records they have identified the person as a Scottish taxpayer subject to SRIT from 6th April 2016 and that the rate will be announced on 16th. 

Where the taxpayer feels that the address detail is wrong their only suggested solution is to complete the change of circumstances form on the HMRC website. 

The letter contains no reply address and, unsurprisingly after recent events, no phone number. It will be interesting to see if these letters lead to increased employer or agent contact from employees who believe them to be incorrect."

Good luck to the 2.2 million who receive these letters!

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 Targets Wealthy Scots

Those wealthy residents of Scotland who are toying with the idea of crossing the border to England (via changing the address of their "main" home) in order to avoid paying higher Scottish income taxes (due to commence April 2016), may need to think again.

HMRC has disclosed that it plans to use “external data” to identify Scots who change their addresses and identify “high risk cases such as mobile employees and taxpayers with high incomes.”

In a submission to Holyrood’s finance committee, HMRC also disclosed that it has worked with SNP ministers about getting address information from NHS Scotland records.

HMRC said it believes that 98% of people it has listed as being Scottish taxpayers are “likely” to have been correctly identified as liable for the new rate of income tax.

Needless to say, the idea that HMRC are looking for wealthy Scots has not gone down well North of the Border. Eben Wilson, director of low-tax campaign group Taxpayer Scotland, is quoted by the Telegraph:

“We want transparency on what HMRC is doing as the idea that they are trawling for wealthy people to trap them is appalling – we need more of them in Scotland.”

Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT) has criticised the HMRC guidelines of who will be a Scottish taxpayer as unclear, inconsistent and “extremely subjective”.
ATT has warned that workers with homes on both sides of the Border could register to vote in England to avoid paying higher taxes in Scotland.

HMRC will write to taxpayers in December informing them they will be treated like a Scottish taxpayer and advising them of how to report a change of address. Separately, it will write to those who appear on the electoral register in Scotland but have an address elsewhere in the UK.

“If the Scottish rates diverge from the rates which apply elsewhere in the UK, there will be an incentive for taxpayers to claim that they live on one side of the border, when they live on the other.

HMRC will use external data to highlight changes of address, and identify high risk cases such as mobile employees and taxpayers with high incomes and will undertake appropriate compliance activity to address any risks that arise.”

It plans to cross-reference the addresses given by taxpayers with those provided by employers and the Department for Work and Pensions.

The submission said the cost to the taxpayer of administering the new system will be between £2 million and £2.5 million next year if MSPs choose to keep income tax rates the same as the rest of the UK.

However, this cost increases to between £5.5 million and £6 million if they elect to have a higher or lower rate.

What could possibly go wrong?

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 Complexity Increases With Scottish Rate of Income Tax

Those of you who think that tax is already way too complicated ain't seen nothing yet.

As from April 2016 the Scottish Parliament will have responsibility for the Scottish Rate of Income Tax (SRIT).

HMRC has published an e-brief on SRIT in which HMRC explains that, depending on the level the Scottish Parliament sets the rate at, Scottish taxpayers may pay a different rate of income tax to the rest of the UK.

The SRIT will not apply to income from savings such as building society interest or income from dividends. This rate will stay the same for all taxpayers across the UK.

An individual will pay the SRIT if they are resident in the UK for tax purposes, and their main residence for most of the tax year has a Scottish postcode.

HMRC will collect the SRIT on behalf of the Scottish Government.

HMRC will contact potential Scottish taxpayers before April 2016.

If an individual is eligible to pay the SRIT, their April 2016 tax code will begin with the letter 'S'. Where an individual pays income tax through their wages (Pay As You Earn), HMRC will advise their employer to treat them as a Scottish taxpayer.

As if HMRC didn't have enough to do already!

This will not end well.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

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

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

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

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

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

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



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Dundee Strike Off!

HMRC, in a volte farce, has reversed its decision to axe 38 jobs in the HMRC Dundee contact centre.

As such the strike action, that was to have commenced this week, has been stopped.

The Courier reports that a last-minute offer by HMRC saw the union call off the strike at 11am.

PCS branch chair Tam Dolan described it as “a major victory for the union and the staff concerned.”

Why then did HMRC back down on this, could it be to do with the referendum or something else?

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"

Dundee Strike

In the days leading up to the Scottish referendum, HMRC staff at the Dundee contact centre will strike over the threat of job losses.

STV reports that members of the public and commercial services union (PCS) have voted by 183 to seven to take industrial action.

The action will include a series of walkouts next week, commencing with a two-hour walkout on Monday September 15 at 12pm. This is to be followed by daily half hour walkouts for the remainder of the week.

The contact centre, located in the Dundee Technology Park, primarily takes calls on the HMRC tax credits helpline, where recently there have been examples of 300 calls waiting at times.

HMRC are seeking to make redundant 38 members of staff, employed on fixed term contracts.

The ball game will change somewhat if Scotland becomes independent.

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"

Scottish Independence - Whither HMRC?

With nine days until the vote on Scottish independence, it looks as though it will be a very close run thing indeed.

I would very much like to hear from loyal readers their take on what will happen to HMRC, both North and South of the border, in the event that Scotland votes "yes".

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 Debt Collection Procedures

HMRC is upping its debt collection activities and, as from mid August, will be issuing leaflets advising businesses and individuals on how to deal with HMRC debt collectors, your rights and their powers to demand payment and remove goods on the spot.

"What to expect when we visit you" explains HMRC’s powers when it arrives at premises to collect outstanding debts, and will be given to debtors when HMRC arrives at their premises.

Quote:

"We are visiting you because we have already attempted to contact you by post and/or by phone, to advise you that you owe us some money. As we have not received the amount that you owe we are now visiting you to collect payment."

For tax and NI debts, HMRC will only call between sunrise and sunset, and for VAT bills, between 8am and 8pm.

Why the distinction in timings?

Debtors facing HMRC visits can expect their goods to be seized in order to settle their debt if they are unable to pay in full. The collector is empowered to select goods from the taxpayer’s home or business, list them on an inventory form C204 Distraint notice and inventory, and then arrange for an auctioneer to take them away.

A separate version of the leaflet has been published for debtors based in Scotland, because under Scottish law HMRC does not have the right to seize goods for debt settlement.

The leaflets can be downloaded here England, Wales and Northern Ireland and Scotland 


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"

Has HMRC Run Out of Cash?

Now here's an amusing article from the Scotsman that focuses on the marked decline in winding-up orders filed in Scotland during 2012. In the first half of 2012 HMRC filed 515 winding-up petitions in Scotland, yet in the second half HMRC filed 107.

Does this mean that the Scottish economy improved during that period?

Probably not, according to the restructuring practitioners that the Scotsman has spoken to HMRC has run out of cash to fund the petitions, and will resume filing them once the new financial year starts again in April. In other words this decline is but a temporary respite.

One practitioner is quoted:

"HMRC is under huge pressure to collect the taxes owed to the government, which is why we are hearing about companies finding it increasingly difficult to negotiate a grace period through the ‘Time to Pay’ scheme,” said one of the practitioners.

I would expect they will start petitioning again in April, when it’s a new financial year with a new budget. That’s unless their whole policy has changed, but I can’t imagine that is the case.”

A spokeswoman for HMRC has dismissed as “nonsense” the idea that it has run out of money to wind up companies.

April will doubtless be a busy month in Scotland, but what of England?

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"