Inquiry Launched

Politicians, fed up with the ongoing cock ups emanating from HMRC (and doubtless worried that some of the shit will, quite deservedly, splatter back on them) have done what politicians always do under such circumstances, they have announced a formal inquiry into HMRC.

A Treasury sub-committee will examine the effectiveness of HMRC and look at "how HMRC is doing its job, whether it can do it better, and what the future holds".

Dame Lesley Strathie, the "beloved and respected" CEO of HMRC, will be called to give evidence.

Ironically there has already been an inquiry into HMRC, the results of which were published this year. That inquiry found that morale was at rock bottom (HMRC are in fact the unhappiest civil servants in Whitehall).

Anyhoo, since then there has been the PAYE debacle and the announcement of further cuts in HMRC's staff etc. The politicians have realised that the government/state in all its many forms (if it is to continue to function) needs money (in the form of taxes), and that HMRC are the means by which that money is collected.

A catastrophic failure of HMRC, its IT systems, or a protracted general HMRC strike could cause a seizure at the very heart of government as the money needed to run the country is left uncollected/processed. The politicians would, quite rightly, be blamed for much of the ensuing chaos.

Therefore the politicians are panicking, and will look at:

- HMRC's performance
- whether it is delivering its key aims
- the implications of HMRC's spending review settlement
- whether it is "able to deliver" the government's aims on tax avoidance/evasion
- whether reforms to the PAYE system are necessary;
- what HMRC's priorities should be for the future.

Good luck with that then!

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 Road To Dictatorship

Those who believe that the UK's tax legislation, and associated administrative burden, cannot become much more complex/onerous may need to be reminded that the EU is pushing to have a right to dictate the tax policies and rates of member states.

Accountancy Age reports that concerns are mounting over the transfer of tax-raising powers to the European Union.

Aside from the administrative burden such powers would bring, the damage to the economy and our democracy of a "one size fits all" dictated by unelected Brussels bureaucrats approach would be incalculable.

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"

Question

The deadline for paper based tax returns for tax year end 2010 is midnight 31 October, taxpayers who fail to meet this deadline face an automatic £100 fine.

Given the backlog of several weeks of unopened post within HMRC, how does HMRC know whether those paper tax returns sent in the weeks/days running up to the deadline were received before/after the 31 October deadline?

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"

Sunday Service Cancelled

HMRC have announced that, as from 29 November 2010, Sunday call centre staff will be redeployed to peak periods during the rest of the week (ie there will be no "Sunday Service").

HMRC state that this will improve service by "driving down waiting times and providing a more effective service for all."

Fair enough, if it works.

Please let me know if an improvement in service does actually occur.

Read more: http://www.accountancyage.com/accountancyage/news/2272113/hmrc-scraps-sunday-caller#ixzz13SDpqQSp
Accountancy Age - Finance, business and accountancy news, features and resources. Claim your free subscription today.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"

Debt Collection

My thanks to a loyal reader who pointed me to Accounting Web, which published a query submitted by a tax agent on behalf of a client who had received a visit from a "very aggressive" HMRC debt collector.

One of the responses to the query gives step by step advice on what to do if faced with this situation, and I have published it unedited as it may be helpful to others:

Query:

"In May of this year a client submitted their P35 to HMRC, but missed off the box 28 figure, CIS deductions suffered. They then realised their mistake and asked us what to do. We sent in an amended P35 and covering letter for them, explaining what had happened and showing the CIS deductions correctly (this was in July).

A few weeks ago, they received a demand from HMRC for the amounts owing. They rang HMRC and explained the situation and we also rang them and was told "we are 3-4 months behind with the post".

On Friday, they received a visit from a very aggressive debt collector demanding assets or a cheque for the amount thye think is owed. It was explained to them that an amended P35 had been submitted and we were awaiting processing of this.

She claimed that to be "nonsense" and that she "wanted their money now". In the end she has given 7 days "grace" to get the revised return processed. We faxed a copy to the employers unit on Friday afternoon and have called them this morning. They cannot promise that it will be processed in time at all.

Where does this leave us? We have the PAYE team way behind with their work and the debt collectors threatening to seize assets if their own people don't process by the end of this week!

Is there anything we can do to either call off the debt collection or push through the amended P35 more quickly?"

One of the responses from an AA reader:

"1) File an immediate formal complaint. Make the complaint by telephone and confirm in writing.

2) Contact the relevant Debt Management Office and file a complaint regarding the disgraceful and utterly unacceptable attitude displayed by the officer who called.

3) Instruct your client NOT to open the door to these clowns - without a court order they have no powers to force entry or to seize goods, and if they refuse to leave when told to they are open to arrest.

4) Point out that by demanding monies which they know, or ought to know, are not due they are committing offences under s40 of The Administration of Justice Act 1970, and, under s2 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

5) For a small fee your local County Court given proof that these monies are not owed, and that HMRC are acting without even opening their post and processing mail before acting, will grant an ex parte emergency injunction against HMRC forbidding them from continuing with collection until the returns etc have been properly processed.

6) Once HMRC confirm that no tax is actually owed, file proceedings on behalf of the client for damages and compensation for distress caused, and for your own costs in the case, keeping the total claim to less than £5,000 as this keeps it in the small claims court (fast track)."

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"

A Little List

In line with the government's aims for "greater transparency", HMRC have published a list of their top 44 earners (in terms of base pay) in 2010.

Steve Lamey, director general of benefits and credits, is the highest earner on the list with a base pay of £205K.

The full list (on a rather awkward to read spreadsheet - you have to click on some of the cells to actually read the full name/job title) can be accessed via this link HMRC top pay.

Note, the list does not appear to take into account bonus payments, pension benefits etc. Additionally, certain job titles do not have a name by them; it is not clear as to whether this means that the post is vacant, or the person holding that post is "shy".

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"