Farewell Windows XP

Just to reminded everyone, as from yesterday Microsoft stopped providing free support for Windows XP.

Here is what I wrote about it in February:

"HMRC has 85,784 PCs, of which 85,268 are moving off Windows XP and 58,631 are ditching Internet Explorer 6.

 

As from 8th April this will present a security weakness, as Microsoft will stop offering free support for XP and will no longer provide any protection to block malicious codes and potential hacks that steal users' data. As from then Microsoft will charge an outlandish £122 per desktop for year one, £244 for year two and £490 for year three.
Suffice to say HMRC will not be paying for this service.
However, not to worry, an HMRC spokesperson is quoted by the Guardian:

"HMRC takes security extremely seriously and has many controls in place to guard against online threats. HMRC is already upgrading our IT software and our systems will remain secure whilst this is happening." 

No problem then, except for the fact that the upgrade from XP and Windows 6 won't be completed by April!"

As a loyal reader reminded us yesterday:

"Don't forget the vast majority of us working in HMRC are still running windows xp (no longer supported by Microsoft) and using ie6 as a browser!"

I dare say in the months to come, this security weakness will be fixed!

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"

Question

Q: Should HMRC have unfettered powers to take money out of resigning Cabinet Ministers' bank accounts?

— Christie Malry (@fcablog) April 9, 2014

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"

HMRC Timewarp

It seems that the HMRC's weekend systems upgrade has not been entirely glitch free.

AccountingWEB members reported problems yesterday with PAYE codes.

When trying to view PAYE notices for the current tax year (2014-15) some members reported seeing a 2012/13 listing.

 


HMRC contacted AccountingWeb and explained that the drop down list for the new tax year had been omitted from the upgraded menu over the weekend, and was defaulting to a previous year.

There were also reports about problems with CT Online. A new validation routine that was introduced this weekend is creating a new error condition (7752) that tells the submitter:

“The CRN on the submission does not match the CRN for this Unique Taxpayer Reference."

The validation routine is not applied if there is no CRN in the CT600 (for example on a charity's return). Nor should the routine take into account leading/trailing letters and zeros.

TaxCalc advised:

“Unfortunately, HMRC are currently experiencing technical issues with this validation and it is currently checking the leading zeros when performing the comparison.”

HMRC is investigating the issue.

The CRN problem was one of several glitches reported by HMRC's CT service issues page, which currently advises:br />

“If this issue has affected you please do not attempt to resend your document. We will post an update on this page as soon as the issue has been resolved.”

I would be interested to hear from any loyal readers who are experiencing problems with accessing/using HMRC's online services.


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"

Backlash Over HMRC's Proposed New Powers

Unsurprisingly the Budget announcement that HMRC will be granted new powers to take taxes owed from people's bank accounts, when multiple attempts to contact the laggardly taxpayers have failed, is facing a backlash.

MPs, banks, charities the world and his wife want robust safeguards over HMRC's powers to raid bank accounts.

For why?

There is a not unreasonable fear that errors will be made, and that HMRC might misuse its powers.

Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Treasury select committee, said that MPs intended to hold further hearings into the new powers, which he said could set a worrying precedent.

He is quoted by the FT:

“It has concerned the committee.”

Many banks want judicial oversight to apply to the new powers, as they worry about being caught between irate customers and the tax authorities.

A source from one bank told the FT:

“HMRC doesn’t have the best record of getting things right.” 

HMRC said in a statement that the new power was aimed at a minority “who simply dodge their obligations”.

The new measure would have appropriate safeguards and tackle those who could afford to pay, it added.

“These are people who have, on average, over £20,000 in their accounts but are refusing to pay their debts. This will only affect a tiny number of debtors whom we have contacted a minimum of four times to ask for payment.”

John Thurso MP is a tad cynical about the powers:

“Any advance of powers by the state needs to be resisted unless they can justify it.

The victims will be people with just enough money to go after but not enough to hire lawyers to fend it off.”

Patrick Stevens, director of tax policy at the Chartered Institute of Taxation, was also sceptical:

“There are lots of very unsophisticated people out there with more than £5,000 in a bank account. We are truly worried about the vulnerable.”

As is Robin Williamson, of the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group charity:

“As always the financially savvy ones will find ways around this. The ones that will be caught are the vulnerable.”

Basically people are afraid that HMRC will ride roughshod over those who have the least ability to defend themselves.

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"

HMRC Systems Upgrade

HMRC has announced that its semi-annual software upgrade will take place over the weekend of 5-6 April.

The core element of the work will be completed between Friday evening and Sunday morning, but some tasks will continue into Monday morning.

HMRC played down the significance of the “routine” seasonal upgrade and told AccountingWEB that it would not herald the launch of any new digital services. This stance is at odds with the department’s Digital Strategy, which set out an ambitious timetable for a range of online services, including a client tax dashboard for agents (known as online self service), digital self assessment and expanded facilities for what used to be known as the business tax dashboard and is now referred to as “Your tax account”.

A number of AccountingWEB members reported on Wednesday that they couldn’t access HMRC online services via their usual links and were being redirected to Gov.uk instead.

HMRC said the temporary redirections from HMRC.gov.uk were put in place as part of preparatory work to more migrate HMRC website content to Gov.uk.

“Unfortunately visitors to the HMRC website were automatically redirected to Gov.uk for a short period earlier today. This problem has now been resolved and we apologise to any customers who were inconvenienced over this short period.”

That may be the official line, but if the back-room upgrade connects to interfaces that link to HMRC.gov.uk and will ultimately migrate to the new Gov.uk site, then they are inextricably linked.

The last reported deadline for the web project was March this year, but the migration of hundreds of pages of content as well as agent, self assessment, PAYE and VAT online services hasn’t happened yet.

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"

Ten Worst Excuses For Not Paying The Minimum Wage

HMRC has published the 10 worst excuses, in its eyes, for employers not paying their staff the minimum wage.

I note that the list excludes politicians who use the services of interns for nothing!


One employer claimed that a worker was his wife, but then had to ask her name. Another claimed that their employees didn’t speak English, so were not entitled to the minimum wage. Others simply tried to deny the employee worked there at all.

To coincide with NMW’s 15th anniversary, HMRC is today revealing the 10 worst excuses given in the past 12 months for not paying the minimum wage:

1.  An employer said a woman on the premises was not entitled to NMW as she was his wife. When asked what his wife’s name was, the employer said: “Err, her name? What’s your name, love?”

2.  One employer told HMRC: “My employees don’t speak English, so they’re not entitled to it.”

3.  An employee ran out of the premises when HMRC officers arrived to check for NMW infringements. The same employee then returned – minus the work pinafore – with the employer claiming they were a customer.

4.  Another employer told HMRC: “When the NMW goes up I do increase the amount I pay a little, even if the total pay is still below the NMW. I don’t think it’s right to ignore rises in NMW.”

5.  Upon inspection, an employer told HMRC: “I know I am paying them too little, but they are happy to work for this amount because they are getting experience.”

6.  An employer said his employee was just working for a few days, with a view to buying the business. When HMRC checked food safety records, the employee’s name was found on historic food temperature records.

7.  An employer claimed they realised they were not paying employees NMW and had just this week increased their wages…to an hourly rate which was still below the minimum wage.

8.  An employer told HMRC: “It wasn’t a conscious decision to say ‘I’m not going to pay this’, but I’ve never really considered doing it because I’ve not had people come to me and say, ‘I’m not getting paid enough’ or ‘Is this the minimum wage?’”

9.  One employer claimed an employee was just a friend, and only in the restaurant as they were in the area. HMRC officers returned another day to find the employee in the kitchen preparing food.

10.  A number of employers claimed that accommodation they provided workers made up for their shortfall in wages.

Jennie Granger, HMRC’s Director General of Enforcement and Compliance, said:
“Most employers are honest and pay their staff the correct rate. But this research shows that some still view the National Minimum Wage as a choice, and will even try these crazy excuses to avoid paying workers what they are due.

“Last year, HMRC’s investigations resulted in over 26,000 people getting a share of £4 million in back pay. HMRC investigate all complaints of employers failing to pay the minimum wage. We will take action to recover back pay for employees and fine employers who are not playing by the rules. 

“HMRC officers work hard across the UK to ensure that everyone is paid at least the National Minimum Wage, and anyone who isn’t should call us.”

HMRC’s nationwide network of NMW enforcement teams investigate complaints, as well as educate employers and employees about what happens if they fail to pay their employees what they are owed.
Anyone who believes they are not being paid NMW can call the Pay and Work Rights Helpline, in confidence, for advice – in over 100 languages – on 0800 917 2368.

Currently, calls to the helpline from interns who are working for nothing, or for “expenses only”, are being fast-tracked to HMRC enforcement officers for investigation.
Notes for editors
1.  The National Minimum Wage Act 1998 took effect on 1 April 1999.
2.  The Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS) has responsibility for NMW policy. HM Revenue and Customs enforces the policy.
3.  The National Minimum Wage is £6.31 an hour for workers aged 21 and over, increasing to £6.50 in October 2014. Further information about the different minimum wage rates, which depend upon age and apprentice status, can be found at www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates
4.  HM Revenue and Customs has 16 minimum wage enforcement teams operating around the UK. Their job is to follow up complaints about non-payment of the minimum wage made to the helpline and to investigate employers at risk of not complying with the legislation. Enforcement officers also give presentations and talks to groups of employers to educate them about their NMW obligations.

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"