A case of disputed late filing penalties saw the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) uphold an appeal by an employee who claimed that HMRC should have known his address as they had previously been in correspondence with him. In Oliver Ralph…
Category: HMRC
Time Limits for Discovery Assessments Clarified
HMRC has clarified the rules on time limits for making a discovery assessment into a tax return where the loss of tax is due to avoidance. As a result, it has updated the HMRC internal manual, SALF411 – Enquiries into…
HMRC Stubborness Prolongs IR35 Agony
HMRC stubbornness prolongs IR35 agony for contractors, says Andy Vessey In the early days of IR35 enquiries, there existed a partisan attitude among some maverick Status Inspectors that ensured such investigations were long and drawn out, and tortuous for the…
Death: the Ultimate Tax Planning
Mark McLaughlin highlights tax planning on gifts between spouses or civil partners that might help some couples at a time they would probably prefer not to think about “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death…
HMRC Case Updates from Accountants to Restaurants
Here’s an update on recent HMRC successful investigations and prosecutions HMRC loses £300k chocolate brownie VAT case A health food brownie containing dates and brown rice bran has been deemed a cake – and so free from VAT charges –…
Is HMRC’s Attitude to “Reasonable Excuse” claims Reasonable?
Mark McLaughlin looks at a recent case in which the tribunal suggested an approach when considering whether a taxpayer has a reasonable excuse for failure to comply with certain tax obligations The imposition of penalties by HMRC is a constant…
A Case in Point: How Tax Case Decision can help
Russell Cockburn considers the use of tax case decisions in disputes with HMRC One of the things I get slightly annoyed about when I am advising others on disputes with Inspectors of taxes is the way they occasionally use tax…
HMRC Toughens Stance on Debt Recovery
HMRC is making widespread use of powers to deduct tax debts owed directly from the earnings of individuals, with 428 people having cash taken straight from their pay packets in 2017/18, according to research from UHY Hacker Young. The firm…
Claiming Vat back without an Invoice: HMRC Are Getting tougher
Our VAT guru Melanie Lord is finding HMRC more hardline than in previous times Has anyone else noticed that HMRC are using their discretion much less freely than they used to? We recently encountered several situations where in years gone…
HMRC Target Online Sellers Red-Flagging Thousands
More than 4,600 online sellers have been red-flagged to marketplaces for tax evasion during the last two years, HMRC has said. As a result, many sellers have had their online stores deleted. The red flags, known as Joint and Several…