Undemocratic

The Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAEW) has issued an unusually strongly worded attack on HMRC wrt to "draconian" new HMRC powers that could force late payers of employment taxes into liquidation.

The ICAEW describes them as "wrong in principle and undemocratic".

The new measures, to be introduced in April 2011, will allow HMRC to demand financial security from businesses that regularly fail to remit PAYE and NI contributions on time or at all.

Businesses that refuse to provide security will be liable to a fine of £5K, as it would be deemed a criminal offence.

Frank Haskew of the ICAEW told the FT that he fears that HMRC's measures will also hit legitimate businesses that have difficulties paying tax because of cashflow problems.

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"

The Cheque's In The Post

HMRC continues to push for taxpayers to file and pay online.

As part of its strategy to make paper transactions as awkward as possible, and indeed to improve its cashflow, HMRC have changed the rules wrt cheque payments.

As from the 1 April, cheque payments will not be treated as received until the day the cheque clears, rather than when it arrives.

This means that people will be relying on HMRC's efficiency, wrt opening the post and and actually banking the cheque, in order to avoid a penalty.

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 Upsets Farmers

The Farmers' Union of Wales is a tad peeved with HMRC's directive that all VAT returns be filed online as from 1 April this year.

Emyr James, the union's business development director, has told the Farmers' Guardian that some farmers in remote areas do not have a computer or do not have access to broadband.

HMRC have suggested that these farmers ask a friend to offer them access, or employ an agent.

Funny that, I though HMRC didn't like agents?

Emyr James is not impressed:

"This is a typically heavy-handed government approach, showing very little appreciation of the true situation for many small-to-medium-sized enterprises."

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"

Power Corrupts

As part of the government's ongoing politicisation of HMRC, and desire to use HMRC as a tool of social control, the recent Budget will give HMRC the power to intercept any suspicious mail anywhere in the country and open it before it is delivered.

The new powers (to be implemented via an amendment to the Postal Services Act) are coming in on the auspices of cracking down on tobacco smuggling. However, HMRC are already drooling and slavering over the prospects of being able to snoop and spy on people.

The Telegraph reports that an HMRC spokesman said that the powers would be applied much more widely.

HMRC inspectors currently must notify the addressee and agree a mutually acceptable time to open the letter or parcel, before deciding whether to take any enforcement action.

However, the new powers will allow HMRC to open "suspicious" post without asking permission first.

So who determines what is "suspicious" or not?

Ah, that would be HMRC.

Judge, jury and executioner rolled into one.

No dangers there then of corruption occurring, and the powers being misused!

Not!

This is one step further down the road towards dictatorship.

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 - PAC Catch Up

Way back in January I noted the following:

"The National Audit Office (NAO) report that up to 44 million calls to HMRC went unanswered in the year 2008-09.

Out of the 103M calls made to HMRC's directorate handling telephone enquiries (an increase of 22% compared to the previous year), 57% (58M) were answered (down from 71% in the previous year).

The National Audit Office stated:

'In terms of handling telephone enquiries, the Department is not currently achieving value for money, as it recognises.'".

The BBC and Public Accounts Committee have finally caught up.

The BBC reports that the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has condemned HMRC's call-handling operation as "poor", and that HMRC needs to be "more ambitious" in improving its service to callers.

HMRC state that, by next year, it aims to answer 90% of calls; despite the fact that the "industry standard" is 95%.

HMRC contact centre staff spend 38% of their time handling calls, compared with an industry benchmark of 60%.

Committee chairman Edward Leigh said:

"If an organisation wants more of its customers to contact it by telephone, then it has got to be good at answering calls.

HMRC unfortunately is not very good at answering calls, its performance remaining well below industry best practice standards.

Staffing levels should be matched more closely to the peaks and troughs of demand and the department must do more to cut the number of calls it regards as unnecessary."

Maybe HMRC should revert to face to face contact centres, which worked very well in the past?

That of course would cost money, and would not fit with Brown's "promise" of everyone having a personal web page from which they can interact with all government organisations at the click of a button.

I am certainly looking forward to seeing that work!

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"

The Eternal Triangle

Much like a jealous lover, HMRC cannot stand the fact that businesses use tax advisers when dealing with HMRC.

HMRC want to show their "love" for businesses directly, without having to share it with others.

As such it should come as no surprise to learn that HMRC are trying a pilot scheme in Exeter, designed to remove tax advisers from the equation.

AccountingWEB reports that HMRC will be contacting local business owners directly, rather than going through their professional advisers, in order to arrange a two day examination of their tax records (without reference to their professional advisers).

HMRC claim that the pilot scheme is designed to minimise compliance costs for both "customers" and HMRC.

Andrew Browne of Bishop Fleming is not convinced:

"This initiative may be aimed at distancing business owners from their tax advisers and putting them under aggressive scrutiny by the taxman."

The old maxim "if you hire a dog, don't do the barking yourself" applies here. In the event that you are contacted by HMRC, pass on the correspondence to your tax adviser and let him/her deal with it.

That is why you are paying them.

Threesomes are much more fun!

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"