I Am The law

New HMRC, in the shape of guidance note EM1609, seems to allow inspectors to retain tax rebates for self assessment tax payers whilst reviewing the case but without the need to open a formal invetsigation.

Mike Warburton of Grant Thornton and the Chartered Institute on Taxation's John Whiting claim that there is no basis in law that allows inspectors to do this.

HMRC claim that the note "broadens the options" available to tax inspectors.

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"

Move Over Darling II

As predicted, HMRC have issued a revised version of "Darling's bankers' bonus tax".

Sneaking it out late last Friday, thus trying to minimise their humiliation, HMRC said:

"The bank payroll tax announced at PBR 2009 applies to retail and investment banks (including building societies), and to banking groups. It does not apply to non-banking companies outside of banking groups (for example, insurance companies, asset managers, stockbrokers etc.)."

Doubtless this clarification will have greatly reassured those who try to do business in the UK that our tax laws are well thought through, and professionally drafted.

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"

Mission Creep - Free Advertising

ROFLOL!

It seems that HMRC are so very cross with tax advisers, who help people reduce their tax bill (ie avoid tax), that they are going to give some of them a public spanking and name and shame them.

Aside from the fact that, unless a criminal offence (ie evasion) has occurred, HMRC should not be publicly discussing the tax affairs of individuals and organisations it is a remarkably idiotic idea which will give the advisers some great free publicity (thereby undermining the HMRC's "lofty moral stance" on the issue).

HMRC claim that it would apply to advisers found to have acted "improperly" (whatever that means).

However, my sources tell me that HMRC seem to be a little confused as to whether their named and shamed list of advisers would apply only to those who aid evasion, as some (who have discussed this with HMRC) have interpreted the responses from HMRC re the new policy as also covering avoidance.

Could this be evidence of mission creep, in HMRC's and Labour's war against tax avoidance?

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"

Move Over Darling

As I predicted, Brown's and Darling's plans for a bankers' bonus tax (levied to divert attention from the 1% rise in National Insurance) is rapidly falling apart.

Both HMRC and the Treasury have been forced to admit that that the draft legislation on bank bonuses is poorly written, and will have to be revised in the New Year.

It seems, as ever with Labour's shoddy legislative drafting, that the net for this tax could be drawn very wide indeed (eg more than just "bankers").

HMRC are stressing that asset management firms (including those owned by banks), hedge funds, investment advisers, private equity and family offices would not be hit by the tax.

However, no one believes them!

Do you?

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"

Computer Says No

The Public Accounts Committee have lambasted HMRC's tired old IT systems, stating that the systems "do not provide essential information".

In fact these systems are so tired and old, it is estimated that around £11BN of the £28BN of tax owed at March 2009 will remain uncollected. That's a tad more than the revenue that Darling kids himself he will make from taxing bankers' bonuses (£500M).

Anyhoo, the committee is of the view that more money needs to be spent on new systems.

Maybe so, but there are a few problems with this "statement of the obvious":

1 Brown has bankrupted Britain, there is no money available to spend on IT upgrades.

2 Will an IT upgrade really improve the bad debt situation so radically?

3 Are HMRC's executives and our "respected" politicians really capable of sourcing, implementing and managing a serious large scale IT upgrade? Experience tells us that they are not.

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"

Thought For The Day

Good luck to HMRC in trying to levy a "bankers' bonus tax", in the event that Darling implements one in his "Pre Budget Report" today.

Disregarding the fact that taxing one specific "class" of worker is contrary to the concept of taxes being non discriminatory, the tax will be unworkable:

1 There will be a wholesale exodus of banks, other financial institutions and individuals from the UK.

2 What is the definition of a "banker"? Those who currently fall into Darling's definition of "banker" will simply have their employment status/title changed, to eg "admin clerk".

3 Pay rises will be backdated to mop up the bonus pool.

The tax will be shot to pieces, and HMRC will be forced to waste valuable time and resources trying to "pin a tail on the donkey" of the bankers.

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"