Poor Old Jack

Jesse Norman MP is calling for Dave "Jack" Hartnett (Permanent Secretary to The Treasury) to resign if the revelations about HMRC (specifically Hartnett) letting Goldman Sachs (the vampire squid of the finance world) off £10M of interest payments for a tax avoidance scheme that was found to be "illegal" are true.

Norman is particularly vexed with "Jack", because he cross examined Hartnett in a Treasury Committee hearing on the 12th September.


1.  Hartnett strongly implied that he was not involved in the Goldman Sachs case.

2.  Hartnett said, in terms, that he was not permitted, and had received legal advice to that effect, to discuss this or similar matters with me or other MPs.

All very nice, except that the reality (according to Private Eye and The Guardian) was a tad different:


1.  HMRC charged Goldman Sachs £10M less than was owing.  It failed to charge interest or penalties on Goldman, which had taken extreme measures to avoid paying the tax due in the first place and then fought to avoid payment for years.  Dave Hartnett personally shook hands on the deal. 

2.  HMRC had received specific advice from James Eadie QC that it could discuss cases with House of Commons committees.

In earlier testimony, Hartnett told Norman that HMRC never charged less than the tax owing--the Goldman Sachs shows this to be false.

Well then!
Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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"

GOD Quitting

The above breaking news may be of interest to some of my loyal readers.

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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"

Calling All Agents

Michael Izza, the CEO of the ICAEW, has issued a public call for tax agent firms to allow HMRC staff to come and see what it is like at the "coal face" and visit the firms to observe procedures etc. HMRC have assured the ICAEW that there are no risks to the firms (or the clients of the firms) if they allow HMRC staff to come and visit.

Here is the full text of Michale Izza's call for help:

"Mike Clasper, Chairman of HMRC, spoke at the ICAEW Council meeting last week about what HMRC is doing to address the service problems that it faces.

An Inspector Calls

The ICAEW reports that Mike Clasper (Charmian of HMRC) popped in to ICAEW Council last week for a wee chat.

Clasper told members that improving service standards and the "customer" experience were priorities for the department. He also stressed the importance of 2012 to HMRC as a number of changes are implemented.

This is his first visit to Council and he acknowledged the difficulties that have existed within HMRC since the merger between Customs and Excise and the Inland Revenue. He also stated that HMRC plans to become more efficient, increase tax revenue and improve the "customer" (ugh, the "C" word again!) experience.

Clasper said:

“With the recent Agent Strategy Consultation, there is a huge opportunity to build on the relationship with agents. Speaking to council today enabled me to emphasise this opportunity and I would urge ICAEW members who would like to become involved to come forward and let us see what they are experiencing on a day to day basis with HMRC.”


You heard the man, tell him what you are experiencing!


Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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"

Information

Those of you who maybe feeling a tad "frustrated" at times when trying to elicit a response from HMRC, wrt a query or information request, may find the advice offered by AccountingWeb to be of interest.

AW suggest that, when all else fails, people should try using a Subject Access Request (SAR) under the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998.

SARs give you a way to obtain copies of data from HMRC within a set time frame including; printouts of household notes (the notes that helpline operators make during telephone calls), claim and renewal forms, letters and recordings of telephone conversations held.

How SARs work

• SARs must be made in writing addressed to the relevant District’s data protection officer; requests cannot be made over the telephone. Requests can be made by email and there is an online form on the HMRC website
• The advantage of a SAR is that a response must be made within 40 days of receipt. If no response within the 40 days a complaint can be made to the Information Commissioner’s Office
• The more detail given as to the problem the quicker the response. The usual personal details are required plus detail of the information requested.
• The response is sent directly to the taxpayer; separate written permission is needed if required to be sent to an adviser.

 Please feel free to let me know if you have used this, and what the outcome was.

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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 Changes The Lexicon

My thanks to a loyal reader who pointed me towards a small and quiet corner of the HMRC website that explains HMRC's powers to prevent deliberate non payment of PAYE.

As from 6 April 2012 "HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) will be able to ask employers to pay a security where there is serious risk that they won’t pay over their PAYE tax deductions or Class 1 National Insurance contributions (NICs). "

The concept is valid when applied to criminals who withhold PAYE from employees pay packets, and who then run off and nick it without passing it onto HMRC.

However, within HMRC's explanatory notes (which try to reassure people that these new powers will not be misused) there comes HMRC's definition of Phoenixism:


"Where a business evades tax by becoming insolvent and then sets up a new company the next day to continue trading."

Reasonable?

Well not entirely, here is a more precise definition:

"In some cases the Liquidator is requested to sell the assets of the business to another party, including the former directors or shareholders. This is commonly known as a Phoenix."

Phoenixism, where the law is followed, is perfectly legal viz:


"The directors of the insolvent company will call an extraordinary general meeting and a meeting of creditors. An advertisement is placed in the London Gazette and creditors are written to with a request that they submit a claim for their debts. At the members meeting, the directors will report that the company is insolvent and will advise that the company should enter Liquidation voluntarily and pass a resolution to cease trading and appoint a Liquidator. At the subsequent creditors meeting, the directors place the statement of affairs before the creditors who then confirm the appointment of a Liquidator.

The Liquidator has four main tasks:

1. To realise the assets of the business
2. To adjudicate creditors' claims, where appropriate
3. To investigate and report on the conduct of directors
4. To make payments to creditors (eg HMRC) in order of priority."

However, HMRC by subtly redefining the meaning by linking it to evasion (which is illegal) are implying that it is illegal. In fact they also imply that "insolvency" is a deliberate attempt at evasion, which of course may be true in some cases but is most certainly not true in all cases of insolvency.

I wonder why no one has picked this up until now?


Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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"