Self Assessment Deadline Day

Aside from today being the Lunar New year (the beginning of the year of the horse), it is also the deadline for the online submission of tax self assessments for tax year ending 2103. Failure to meet the deadline will result in an automatic fine of £100, irrespective of whether there is any tax owing or not.

Suffice to say, human nature being what it is, a number of people have yet to submit their tax returns; in fact, according to media estimates, some two million people have yet to file their returns.

This tardiness has prompted the ACCA to call for HMRC to put the deadline back to 3 February.

Aside from human nature being a primary factor in this tardiness, another contributing factor is likely to be the change in child benefit rules which has created a large number of first time self assessment taxpayers.

ACCA's head of taxation Chas Roy-Chowdhury claimed that HMRC had a "common sense" decision to make. He is quoted by AccountancyAge:

"Either it can stick to the deadline and penalise all those families and self-employed people who are struggling to get to grips with the self-assessment process.

Or it can do the right thing and give them a lifeline by extending the deadline. Self-assessment is not easy and there are fines starting at £100 for missing the deadline even if you don't owe any tax.

The circumstances around this year's deadline are different in that there will be a high number of people who will never have done self-assessment in their lives. They are going to miss the deadline not because they have been putting it off, but because they are newcomers. If reports are to be believed that two million have yet to meet the deadline just two days before it closes, then it is likely a lot of people will miss it."

As to whether HMRC will heed ACCA's call for a relaxation depends on how today turns out, and what form of media/political pressure ensues if vast swathes of middle class child benefit receivers are hit with fines for tardiness.

Quite honestly I don't see an extension to 3 February as making much of a difference; the chances are that those first timers who have not yet filed may be blissfully unaware that they have to file, and will only realise that when they are fined.

The more likely outcome will be that certain late filers will, if they have a reasonable excuse (eg first time ignorance), have their fines waived.

I should note that there is in fact a partial extension of the deadline to 15 February, but only for certain self assessment taxpayers.


As per Tolley the deadline extension applies to taxpayers who did the following between midnight on 21 January and midnight on 31 January 2014:
- enrolled for the Self Assessment online service, or
- requested a replacement user ID or password

As ever, views and comments are welcome.

Happy Lunar New Year!


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 Tax Investigation Insurance.

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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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"

Communications Foul Up

The Telegraph reports that there has been a communications foul by by HMRC wrt the tax treatment of child benefit charges for this tax year.

HMRC tax coding notices HMRC implies that the full year's worth of benefit (for this tax year) should be collected through the wages in the remaining two months of this tax year.

Employers and taxpayers are both receiving the coding changes which could lead to the full year's money being taken through just two payslips. The information given by HMRC's customer helpline also confirmed the impression of the money being taken in two months.

However, the reality is meant to be different from what has been communicated. Yesterday HMRC apologised for the poor wording of its coding notices, it now insists the intention was not to claw back all the money in such a short time.

An HMRC spokesman said:

"We will not be collecting the full child benefit charge for 2013-14 tax year before 31 January 2015 at the earliest. We apologise if the coding notice suggests otherwise and anyone who finds they are having the child benefit charge taken in a way they did not want should contact us as soon as possible."

This of course means that people should check very carefully their PAYE coding notices and their monthly income net of tax for February and March.

Those receiving PAYE Coding Notices are urged to call the tax office on 0300 200 3300.

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 Tax Investigation Insurance.

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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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 Steady Ship II

Yesterday's article about the piss poor response rate to HMRC's 2013 Autumn staff survey prompted one loyal reader to post the following comment:

"Ken,

You and your readers may find the attached link interesting...

http://guernseypress.com/business/2013/09/26/hmrc-borrows-mind-strategey/
Read it twice, carefully, as ever, the devil is in the detail, WTF were HMRC doing before they sent someone to Guernsey (Tax Avoidance Haven?} and why was it necessary to send someone there when their own staff, unions and staff surveys ad nausea been telling them the same things.

Homer has been "reassuring" anyone daft enough to listen to her that the HMRC systems were resilient, complied with legislation and the best interests of staff were being served.

That's treble bollo@&s and they know it. There are some interesting facts emerging from the Dundee Employment Tribunals that will cause some intake of breath when they are connected to figures like the 17,000 Welsh HMRC staff days lost to stress in the last 3 years or the 1,300 plus tribunal cases brought to tribunal by staff in the last six years.

Come on Ken, get your readers to play "join the dot"s, its even more productive than "managers bullshit bingo"!"

The loyal reader is of course quite right, why send someone to a tax haven to discuss things that were already known?

Additionally, is it not "ironic" (I am understating myself here) that the staff survey results showed an "improvement" (albeit based on a piss poor response rate) given that HMRC has the worst sickness record in the public sector in 2013?

Seemingly at least 25% of total absences were related to mental health issues, and there were staff who never took a day off sick even though they were generally under-performing. Indeed HMRC even admitted to the fact that it had no mental health strategy!

Something is clearly not right within HMRC, and yet the survey results do not show that!

Why?

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 Tax Investigation Insurance.

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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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 Steady Ship?

The recently published results of HMRC's 2013 Autumn staff survey have prompted AccountancyAge to declare that the "HMRC ship is steadying".

Almost every area yielded improved results, and an overall improvement on 2012.

In each metric on leadership and managing change, the proportion giving positive responses rose significantly; although they remain down on the rest of the civil service.


Well then, has the ship steadied does this show that things are getting better?

Bunkum and balderdash!

In the 2012 the response rate was 60%, the 2013 survey had a pathetic response rate of 43% (ie 57% of HMRC staff did not bother filling in the survey, indeed PCS told people not to fill it in because members do not trust what HMRC will use the data for).

That is hardly indicative of a happy and contented workforce.

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 Tax Investigation Insurance.

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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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"

Is HMRC Becoming More Aggressive?

AccountancyAge poses the hypothesis that HMRC is becoming more aggressive in its approach to collecting taxes. The hypothesis is based on two sets of statistics:

1 The increase tax take of £19.5BN when comparing 2013 to 2012.

2 An increase in judicial review requests from 39 in 2011 to 51 in 2012 (the most recent data available).

The above two sets of statistics are not, in my opinion, prima facie evidence of a more aggressive approach by HMRC; eg part of the increase in tax take can be explained by an increase in employment etc.

However, Jason Collins head of tax at Pinsent Masons is of the view that the increase in applications for judicial reviews is significant:

"This significant jump in the number of applications shows just how contentious some of HMRC's decisions have become.

Although not all of these disputes will progress all the way to a full judicial review hearing, this surge in challenges reflects taxpayers' reaction to the increasingly aggressive stance taken by HMRC to increase its tax take and clamp down on tax avoidance and evasion.

Any proposals which limit scrutiny over how HMRC goes about its business could ultimately have a negative effect on the quality of the tax authority's work."

I would suggest that the indicators of a more aggressive approach are more subtle; eg the ongoing attempts to water down/eliminate ESC A19 relief and the mandatory £100 fine for late filing even when there is no tax owing.

What are your views?

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 Tax Investigation Insurance.

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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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"

Enquiry Centres Decision

My thanks to a loyal reader who has advised me that the decision on the fate of HMRC's enquiry centres will be released on Wednesday 12 February at 1pm.

The "decision making" process has been long and drawn out (almost 11 months to the day since it was announced), indeed on 10th January PCS stated that the decision would be made on 14th January.

Maybe the decision has indeed been made, but the publication of the decision is being delayed? 

Views and comments are welcome.

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 Tax Investigation Insurance.

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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance 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 Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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"