Online Tax Return Deadline

You have until midnight tonight to file your online tax return and pay tax due.

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's Falling Yields

HMRC collected 25% less money from investigations into big business in 2016 https://t.co/ysDVxJP0HY

— Tax Tipper, ACA (@TaxTipper) January 30, 2017

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 Secret of HMRC's "Success" Doesn't Stack Up

Unsurprisingly HMRC have received another drubbing, this time from PAC.

In a report issued by PAC, PAC chairwoman Meg Hillier said HMRC's claims about its success "just don't stack up".

Well then, finally people other than the readers of this site are waking up to reality!

Of particular concern to PAC is HMRC's "one rule for the rich, another for the poor" approach to tax collection and enforcement.

Amusingly, HMRC claim that the rich get extra scrutiny; as some loyal readers have already pointed out, "extra scrutiny" appears to mean power lunches/dinners with HMRC top brass.

In an "ironic" twist, since HMRC set up a specialist unit dealing with so-called high net worth individuals in 2009, the amount of income tax they paid had fallen by £1bn. This is despite income tax receipts from the public as a whole rising by £23bn over the same period.

Since 2009, each of the estimated 6,500 individuals worth £20m or more has been assigned a "customer relationship manager" by HMRC to administer their tax affairs.

HMRC said this had resulted in the collection of an additional £2bn in tax. However, it was unable to explain why the income tax they paid fell by 20% - from £4.5bn in 2009-10 to £3.5bn in 2014-15 - when the overall income tax take rose by 9% £23bn.

The BBC reports that in the five years to 31 March 2016, HMRC completed just 72 fraud investigations into high net worth individuals, with all but two having been dealt with using its civil powers. Only one case resulted in a successful criminal prosecution.

Of the 850 penalties issued to the very wealthy since 2012, the average charge was £10,500, a figure the MPs said was unlikely to be a deterrent to multi-millionaires.

PAC chairwoman Meg Hillier said:

"If the public are to have faith in the tax system then it must be seen to have fairness at its heart. It also needs to work properly. In our view, HMRC is failing on both counts.

HMRC's claims about the success of its strategy to deal with the very wealthy just don't stack up."

An HMRC spokesman said:

"In fact we give them additional scrutiny, with one-to-one marking by HMRC's specialist tax collectors, to ensure that they pay everything they owe, just like the rest of us do." 

"Marking" should not mean power lunches/dinners!

As ever though, low hanging fruit is the easiest to pick. Therefore HMRC will continue to bully SME's and individuals of modest means, and increase the number/frequency of automatic fines for minor cock ups on tax returns.

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"

Tax Error Penalties Increase By 38%

In the year to April 2016, HMRC imposed 28,663 penalties against those whose inaccurate returns deliberately understated their income.

This represents an increase of 38% on the 20,740 penalties given out in 2014-15.

International Adviser reports that the figures, obtained by RSM using a Freedom of Information request, show that just 5,162 fines were given out in 2012-13, an almost six-fold rise in deliberate penalties over a period of four tax years.

Mike Down, head of tax investigations at RSM, is quoted:

"This spike in penalties suggests a marked change in attitude at HMRC, and it is clear that Inspectors are now taking a much harder line.

However, HMRC needs to be wary of the perception that they are engaging in ‘penalty farming’ and ensure they don’t unfairly penalise people who are not seeking to deliberately deceive". 

Penalties are levied according to the type of taxpayer behaviour that leads to an inaccuracy and on whether the tax adjustment is volunteered freely, or arises as a result of an HMRC challenge.

There are four categories of behaviour, ranging from ‘mistake’ despite taking reasonable care, failure to take reasonable care (or ‘careless’), to ‘deliberate’ with the most serious being an inaccuracy which is ‘deliberate with concealment’. The more serious the behaviour, the higher the penalty.

As Mr Down says, HMRC needs to be wary of penalising people who innocently made a mistake.

The ongoing increase in penalties levied indicates one or more of the following:

1 Taxpayers are becoming more dishonest.

2 HMRC are becoming more skilled at identifying errors.

3 HMRC are "penalty farming".

Your thoughts and opinions are, as always, very 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"

HMRC's 22 Year Error

I appreciate that cock ups occur in life. However, I am having trouble believing that one involving a duplicate NI number and an erroneous tax demand could have gone on for 22 years without being corrected.

The Daily Record recently reported that Darren O’Neill was shocked to find that he had a namesake – with the same national insurance number.

Some 22 years down the line, he was no nearer to resolving his identity crisis.

Darren, 42, said:

“I can’t take much more of this. I am weary trying to explain to the Revenue that I’m being confused with another Darren O’Neill.

We have the same name but different middle names. He lives in Lincolnshire and I live in West Lothian. I’m at the end of my tether.”

Darren, a former surveyor, first spotted the problem when he finished an apprenticeship in 1995.

“I began looking for work and tried to claim Jobseeker’s Allowance while I was doing that.

But I was told I couldn’t claim because I was working.

This was ridiculous because I wasn’t working – I was looking for work.

I spoke to the tax office about it, they admitted their error and I breathed a sigh of relief.

This other Darren had an identical reference number. So they issued me with a temporary number supposedly for a year while they sorted things out.”

When he started working again, Darren, of Bo’ness, was told to revert to the original number.

He said:

“I recall moving jobs a couple of times and my employers telling me my NI number was wrong.

But each time I approached HMRC, they apologised, assured me they had solved things and I just kept paying into the system.”

However, in 2010 he received a letter issuing him with a new tax code and claiming he worked for the NHS in Lincolnshire.

“I then got a P800 claiming I’d underpaid tax on my salary of more than £30,000.
I couldn’t believe it. I wish I had an income like that.”

Two years later, HMRC wrote to say they would collect the underpayment through his tax code.

“It was difficult enough making ends meet without deductions for repayment of tax I didn’t owe. But things seemed to be sorted again after I complained and pointed out their error.”

When he tried to claim universal credit in November, following a shoulder op, the DWP insisted he was in work.

Darren said:

“I’ve been to my MP and Citizens Advice but I’m getting nowhere. I’m fed up filling in forms. Please help.”

HMRC are now "on the case" to resolve the issue.

A spokesman said:

“We don’t discuss individual cases but, where a National Insurance record is not up to date, we do all we can to help customers identify any missing credits.”

How on earth can an error like this go unresolved for 22 years?

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"

Voice ID Doesn't Recognise Northern Accents

My sources tell me HMRC's voice automated call routing can't yet cope with Northern accents ... https://t.co/7cWRv0z2dp

— Secret Ledger (@secret_ledger) January 23, 2017

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"