CEST Tool Updated

HMRC has released an updated Check for Employment Status for Tax (CEST) service, used to find out whether a contractor or employer should be classed as employed or self-employed for tax purposes, and in-line with IR35 legislation.

Susan Ball, employer solutions tax partner at RSM, is quoted by AccountancyAge:

“It is understood that around 30 questions have been updated or included and that several industry bodies and reportedly more than 300 stakeholders were asked to use the new version and feed in comments. Until now CEST produced an answer in only 85% of cases.

The new tool has also been rigorously tested against case law and settled cases by officials and external experts. After answering a series of questions, the CEST tool will return a judgement on whether IR35 legislation applies or not. Questions cover worker’s duties, substitutes and helpers, working arrangements, financial risk, worker’s involvement and contracts (including if working for others).”

Anyone tried it 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.

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900K Scam Attempts

The FT reports that almost 900,000 people received scam emails, texts or calls purporting to be from HMRC in the past year.

HMRC has urged the public to be vigilant in the run-up to January 31’s tax return deadline.

Seemingly the most common scam, reported by more than 620,000 people, was the unexpected offer of a tax rebate by phone, text or email.

Victims were directed to phishing websites bearing the HMRC logo, designed to trick them into disclosing personal information, including their bank details, address, date of birth and mother’s maiden name, enabling their money to be stolen.

More than 100,000 of the fraud attempts reported to HMRC concerned phone scams, where criminals posing as HMRC staff threatened victims with arrest or imprisonment if fictitious tax bills were not paid.

HMRC has set up a special email address — phishing@hmrc.gov.uk — so that members of the public can use to report scams.

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 Is "Incorrect"

Energy Voice reports that Awilco Drilling, headquartered in Westhill, near Aberdeen, said it was in “regular contact” with HMRC regarding part of its income booked in 2015.

The company believed it could use its accumulated losses to offset the income, giving it a reduction in tax liability for the year However, HMRC disagrees and has levied a £7.7M tax bill on Awilco.

In the firm’s third-quarter results announcement, Awilco’s management said they were “of the opinion that HMRC is incorrect” and have challenged the decision.

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"

Office For Statistics Regulation To Review HMRC

The Office for Statistics Regulation has confirmed it is to review the quality-assurance principles and processes HMRC uses for its data publication after a double-counting error added almost £7bn to its Corporation Tax receipt statistics.

Director general for regulation Ed Humpherson said HMRC had invited the watchdog to give an independent assessment of the department’s quality-management approach and identify areas of improvement after the “significant error” emerged earlier this year.

While the error – revealed by HMRC in September – has not resulted in any financial loss to the nation's coffers, it did mean that Corporation Tax receipts statistics reflected a figure that grew to become a combined £6.95bn higher than should have been the case between April 2011 and July 2019.

Humpherson said HMRC’s most recent set of Corporation Tax statistics, published in September, had corrected the data and noted that the actual figures reported in HMRC’s accounts remained the same.


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 Wreaking Havoc On Taxpayers' Lives

MPs have warned the attitude of HMRC towards its controversial loan charge was "wreaking havoc" on taxpayers, amid claims of homelessness, deaths, and other hardships allegedly caused by its demands.

The Loan Charge All-Party Parliamentary Group published its latest survey report November 5 in which more than 2,000 people believed to be facing the loan charge detailed how it, and HMRC's pursuit of its payment, had impacted their lives.

According to the survey, carried out between October 23 and October 28, one in six respondents are yet to receive settlement figures from HMRC detailing how much is owed, and a third have still not been formally notified of the charge by the taxman.

When approached by FTAdviser HMRC maintained more than 99 per cent of "customers" who had provided the relevant information by the April 2019 deadline had now received settlement calculations, as of August 31.

The MPs' report found more than 60 families were believed to have lost their homes as a result of the loan charge and two respondents reported they had been made homeless.

Further respondents said they had "seriously considered" suicide facing the charge and the parliamentary group also received reports of alleged miscarriages due to the stress of the situation.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group said much of the sentiment expressed in its most recent findings was similar to that published in its March survey - but where previous responses had focused on the legislation itself as the cause of distress, resentment was now growing towards HMRC's behaviour "wreaking havoc on taxpayers' lives".

The report said:

"In addition to HMRC’s inadequate ‘service’ towards taxpayers, participants have continued to emphasise that they are fearful, uncertain and this is now giving rise to a growing sense of anger at the perceived unjust manner in which HMRC is treating them.

The number of those participants who have claimed bankruptcy remains small. We can speculate that increased levels of bankruptcy are more likely to occur after taxpayers have signed settlement agreements.

Nevertheless, 94 per cent of participants remain in a perpetual state of limbo not knowing what the future holds."

Outside of the specific questions included in the survey, respondents were invited to share details of their experiences of living with the loan charge.

These accounts included claims of abortions to "spare the unborn child from living with stress and threat of poverty".

Irrespective of the arguments about whether the loan charge is a retrospective tax or not, quite clearly a situation whereby people are committing suicide and having abortions because of a tax bill is wrong on every level.

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"

Loan Charge Review On Hold Until After The Election

Thousands in limbo as review into HMRC's 'loan charge' delayed until after election https://t.co/Hqjhd3Qyjq via @Telegraph #loancharge

— Harry Brennan (@_Harry_Brennan_) November 5, 2019

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"