I often reflect on the changes that I’ve seen as an Accountant in practice over the last 20-30 years and which ones I think have had the most obvious and direct effect on my ability to help my clients. Technological…
Category: Tony Talks
Letter or Phone: Should HMRC cater for you?
In my last blog I pointed out that in the quarter to 30 June 2019. HMRC received 4.5 million letters, that’s 1.5 million pieces of post every month, from taxpayers in the UK. To me this highlighted how despite the…
Email, Webchat or Letter: HMRC need to offer all of them equally
In a Digital era where everything is instant or at worst, after hitting Return or Send and communication is apparently all via a keyboard and at best simply down to asking Alexa or Siri. HMRC are pushing forward with their…
C Minus for the Vat Helpline and as for the Digital Agenda well…
I had to smile when I read recently about the travails suffered by Neil Warren the Vat well know VAT Consultant and award-winning writer on tax when he tested the HMRC Vat Helpline for a short article in Taxation Magazine…
Do you talk to your clients?
A strange question to ask isn’t it? Do you talk to your clients? Surely all accountants talk to their clients and there is no doubt truth in that answer. However, if you discount the calls to chase information, to obtain…
Do HMRC REALLY value the work we do?
Below I have an extract from the latest Office of Tax Simplification Report issued this month (May 2019) relating to the “Strategy for Agents” the highlights and underlining are mine. “4.35 HMRC recognises the valuable role tax agents play and…
What will be the true cost of MTD4Vat?
As desktop users running their own paid for accounting software have been asked frankly eyewatering amounts to “upgrade” it became apparent that their software providers were looking to push them over to their new cloud based products and the users…
SARs: Your “Get out of jail free” card
Monopoly is one of the biggest selling board games in the world and has been played by families everywhere usually ending in a temper tantrum from one or other of the children or maybe the adults. “Community Chest” is the…
MTDfB delayed post April 2020
So, now we know MTD4VAT’s big strapping brother MTDfB has been postponed again until at least 2021. How was this piece of information conveyed to us? Was it via a massive email campaign or maybe a letter? or even in…
Estate Agents hit with Money Laundering Fines
As we read the news that Estate Agents Countrywide Estate Agents and Tepilo Ltd have been hit with fines of £215,000 and £68,595 and from HMRC for Money Laundering offences and that HMRC had visited 50 estate agents that they…