Homer's Secret Meeting

On Tuesday I wrote about Lin Homer's "Breakfast Briefing" on 18 October at the Whitehall and Industry Group (WIG), where:

"Homer will talk about the department’s challenges around efficiency and building trust whilst ensuring their activities are as transparent as possible. Lin will further provide an update on HMRC's transformation and their agenda for the coming years."

I noted that attendees at the event appear to have been vetted, and asked if there were any minutes available.

Following on from that, I then emailed WIG a link to the article and asked if there were any minutes.

Today I received the following reply:

"Dear Mr Frost 

Thank you for your email. 

We don’t take minutes of our briefings and Lin Homer spoke without the use of slides so unfortunately there is nothing to issue. 

 Sorry not to be able to help. 

 Best regards, 

Johanna Czako 

Head of Events"

So there we go folks; Homer spoke at an event with no minutes, no records and no slides.

How very convenient for her!
 
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 Taxwise.

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 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"

What Did Homer Say?

In the first week of October loyal readers may recall that I wrote about Lin Homer's "Breakfast Briefing" on 18 October at the Whitehall and Industry Group (WIG), where:

"Homer will talk about the department’s challenges around efficiency and building trust whilst ensuring their activities are as transparent as possible. Lin will further provide an update on HMRC's transformation and their agenda for the coming years."

WIG asked that people who wished to attend should register with them.

Step forward one loyal reader (a professional accountant) who wrote to me that he did just that, and received a confirmation of registration on 5 October:

"From: WIG Response [mailto:wigresponse@wig.co.uk]
Sent: 05 October 2012 16:36
To:
Subject: Re: Breakfast Briefing: Lin Homer CB, Chief Executive and Permanent Secretary, HM Revenue & Customs - The Whitehall & Industry Group
Thank you for your application which is now being processed by the WIG team.

Please make any replies to workshops@wig.co.uk as this mailbox is un-attended.

80 Petty France London  SW1H 9EX Tel:     020 7222 1166 Fax:    020 7222 1167 Web:  www.wig.co.uk"

Unfortunately things then went rather quiet, and my loyal reader heard nothing. He duly wrote back to them on 17 October, and asked if the event was still going ahead. Here is the reply he received, on the same day, from the events co-ordinator:

"Many thanks for your email, I have just taken over this event from a colleague. I am sorry to say we are fully booked for the event, and cannot accommodate you this time.

I hope you can appreciate this event was very popular, and spaces limited"

Does it not seem strange, to say the least, that he received no advice until then that his booking could not be accommodated?

A cynic might wonder if the attendees were vetted, in order to ensure there were no embarrassing questions.

Anyhoo, be that as it may, did anyone actually manage to attend this and if so what was said?

It goes without saying that if there are minutes of the meeting floating around, I would be more than delighted to post them on this site.

A list of attendees would also be rather interesting too!

Thanks.

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 Taxwise.

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 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"