Dedicated to the taxpayers of Britain, and the employees of His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC), who have to endure the monumental shambles that is HMRC.
A number of loyal readers have commented on the word "lately" re Homer's Damehood:
"Order of the Bath Dames Commander of the Order of the Bath Ms Linda Margaret HOMER, CB Lately Chief Executive, HM Revenue and Customs. For public service particularly to Public Finance. (Hadleigh, Suffolk)."
Does this mean she has already left office?
If so, why has there been no advert for the job 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.
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.
Another New Year approaches, and with it another set of New Year honours.
Normally the honours attract a degree of admiration and ridicule, depending on who has been awarded one and on the political perspective of those viewing the honours list.
However, this year marks a turning point in which the entire country has been royally taken the piss out of by the award of a Damehood to Lin Homer.
Homer's "career" (if it can be described as such) is a series of increasingly appalling car crashes of spectacular incompetence, as she climbs the slippery slope of civil service power and authority. Now, to add insult to injury, she has been awarded a Damehood for her work in HMRC.
This surely is an insult to every member of staff of HMRC and every taxpayer; ie it is an insult to the entire country.
Normally honours are awarded to those who have left office, to those who have done something useful or to those who are chums with the PM. However, as far as I can see, Homer is none of these.
Therefore I can only conclude that she was given the award for one (or a combination) of the following reasons:
1 Cameron is a closet republican, and wants to bring the system into such disrepute that it is abolished.
2 Cameron wants to take people's attention away from Crosby's honour.
3 Homer was about to leave, and the award is a bribe to keep her in office long enough so that she can be blamed when HMRC inevitably collapses.
4 Homer knows where the bodies are buried in HMRC, and it's a bribe to keep her quiet.
Whatever the reason, it's a fucking disgrace!
Thoughts and comments are very much appreciated.
Incidentally, a twitter chum of mine who is a journalist is seeking confirmation (for an article that he is penning) that Homer is on PAYE. I assume that she is, but please could someone confirm this?
Thanks.
Happy 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.
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.
Despite the ongoing chaos in the North of the country caused by storms Desmond, Eva and Frank, HMRC are emulating the response of Sir Philip Dilley (chairman of the Environment Agency) and not giving a damn.
"Stuart Jones of 3CA Accountants in Kendal, Cumbria has borne the
brunt of the twin storms’ fury. According to Jones, residents are
bracing themselves for further storms. Kendal was completely cut off
three days ago as all the roads leading into the town were flooded.
Jones
now has the unenviable task of facing self assessment season with a
ruined office. “Our downstairs was about a metre deep,” said Jones.
“We’ve had to move upstairs and we’ve lost all our computers and records.” HMRC has set up a flooding tax helpline -
but Jones told AccountingWEB he has struggled to get conclusive answers
on precisely what allowances will be made for accountants in his
position. “When I phoned the helpline, I was told they couldn’t help me
with any client who didn’t owe HMRC money.
“They seem to expect me
to write in for every individual client to ask for reasonable excuse - I
have 80 returns to file,” he said. “And I bet if I did do that, I’d be
told to write in - but HMRC’s response turnaround is 12 weeks.”
He
continued, “Their main concern seems to be they don’t want to be seen
chasing debts from businesses who are literally up to their necks in
water. The rest of us just have to hold on,” said Jones."
This sounds par for the course for HMRC. Please feel free to share your HMRC flood stories.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Congratulations to HMRC for coming almost bottom in the 2015 Civil Service People Survey wrt staff engagement as published 16 November (yes, I know I'm late with this!).
The median employee engagement index was 58%, HMRC scored 45% (only three other departments scored lower).
Bonuses all round then eh?
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.
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.
"Jessica Figueras, chief analyst at government IT experts Kable,
believes the additional £1.3bn promised to digitise HMRC by 2020 is
money that has been costed from the Aspire contract. "HMRC is planning to save 25 per cent of the costs of
Aspire by replacing it," she said. Last year HMRC spent £874m on IT and
digital. "Put it another way – HMRC's stated plan is to spend less on
digital and IT, not more."
Let's see where we are in a year's time!
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.
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.
