Enter Your E-mail

ETF Month Most people will not realise it, but last month was officially ETF Month. Regular TW readers will be aware that ETF has waged pretty much a one-man (-woman?) campaign against the burning injustice of NRCGT penalties, through one of our longest-running and most-viewed threads. (S)he gets an “A*” for effort. One of the key problems with HMRC’s approach to the NRCGT penalties is its continuing failure to grasp what constitutes a “reasonable excuse” when taxpayers, ... Continue Reading

Last month, we warned that HMRC’s continued self-delusion risked contaminating the government’s decision-making process, and that HMRC was actually taking worsening compliance as proof that its approach was working.  ContractorCalculator’s Dave Chaplin picks up the thread. Consultation Claims Despite numerous problems with the 2017 roll-out to the public sector, it is clear that HMRC intends to press ahead with its “reform” of the off-payroll working or IR35 regime ... Continue Reading

As part of his monthly newsletter for Field Court Tax Chambers, Peter Vaines highlights just how Draconian are HMRC’s new powers to demand securities – powers HMRC is currently seeking to extend to Corporation Tax and CIS. So Draconian, in fact, that even HMRC seems embarrassed to use them as the law requires? Introduction I mentioned some time ago that the power of HMRC to require security for PAYE and NIC is truly awesome. The principle is fair enough and we have seen it in the context ... Continue Reading

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has more than doubled the number of underpaid workers getting the money they’re owed under the National Minimum Wage, according to latest figures. In 2017/18, HMRC investigators identified £15.6 million in pay that is owed for over a record 200,000 of the UK’s lowest paid workers, up from £10.9 million for over 98,000 workers last year. HMRC launched their online complaints service in January 2017, which has contributed to the 132% increase ... Continue Reading

Peter Vaines looks at discovery assessments, the extension of the DOTAS regime to Inheritance Tax, and a curious case of deemed income without a source that did not end well for HMRC.   Discovery Assessments The arguments and appeal hearings about discovery assessments continue unabated, and the subject gets ever more confused as the meaning of these rules is continually refined. The angels who are dancing on section 29 TMA 1970 are having a ball. The resources which are consumed in arguments ... Continue Reading

Andrew Hubbard of RSM discusses changes to HMRC's Digital Transformation Programme HMRC announced significant changes to some of its major projects this week as a result of the all-consuming need for its systems to be up and running for Brexit. Not surprisingly one of the major impacts has been on its digital transformation programme. HMRC chief executive Jon Thompson, in what I thought was an impressively robust session before the Public Accounts Committee, admitted that HMRC had been over-ambitious ... Continue Reading

Dave Chaplin’s investigation into HMRC’s online Employment Status tool and its use by Public Sector Bodies reveals many contractors are being wrongly taxed. We have previously pointed out that HMRC’s online Check Employment Status Tool (CEST) is critically flawed. Based on our own review of the IR35 cases, and many years of modelling, we might expect to see around 30% of the people taking the test ending up “caught” by the HMRC’s online tool as having employed ... Continue Reading

TW Ed warns that neither HMRC, nor the taxpaying public, will learn from its mistakes unless HMRC admits to them. It may be said that “no publicity is bad publicity”, but HMRC seems to disagree. HMRC has a duty to the taxpaying public to recognise – and to publicise – when it is wrong, since those are the people whom, ultimately, HMRC exists to serve. While it may be true that HMRC wins more tax cases than it loses, the number of losses which HMRC actually acknowledges is ... Continue Reading

Tax Insider are developing products to help you stay ahead in the increasingly competitive tax industry, but we need your help to make them the best that they can be. Please click below to complete our survey; it only takes 3 - 4 minutes. Complete the survey  As a thank you, you will be entered into a prize draw for 3 lucky winners to receive a £50 voucher of their choice. The survey will only be open until 8th May 2018, so act now for your chance to win. All responses given to ... Continue Reading

BKL on the Expiry of Enterprise Management Incentive Scheme Status One of the less pleasant surprises to come out of HMRC at the end of the tax year was the announcement that EU State Aid approval for the Enterprise Management Incentive (“EMI”) scheme expired on 6 April. You might think – so what?  So did we, actually: while the expiry of approval means that in affording tax benefits to options granted after 6 April 2018 the UK government would be in breach of their obligations ... Continue Reading