Hi Having had a successful practice for 25 years we agree with - TopicsExpress



          

Hi Having had a successful practice for 25 years we agree with the MPs criticism of the HMRC and make the following additional observations: Summary: HMRC has a dire need to improve in a big way instead of blaming everybody else for its gross inadequacies. It does not need more powers but more efficiency and training of staff in tax law procedure, courtesy, British values and by own admission in debt collection. Facts about HMRC In more detail and what MP’s think: 1.They want a sledgehammer to crack a nut: If there are only a few taxpayers who do not pay then HMRC should improve their system of collecting tax from them which as admitted by HMRC is woefully inadequate. It seems they want to harass the whole British public for their own inadequacies and go against the Magna Carta to do this. The remark in the last para applies more to HMRC staff especially technical queries staff. HMRC should hold tax courses for them. This is most urgent . HMRC are not above the law and the wishes of the MPS and the public? 2. I read an article some months ago the Chancellor was surprised that the super rich and large corporations do not pay any tax. They should collect tax from them instead of getting powers to abuse middle Britain. (The ones on the dole who get large sums do not pay tax either ). HMRC seem afraid to collect tax from super rich and large corporations. 3. HMRC cannot deal with calls or even answer technical queries. 80% of technical inspectors when they ring back to answer them do not have an answer and harass busy accountants with stupid stratagems of getting out of answering them. 4. Under self assessment we accountants do all the work for HMRC and if they cannot even collect the tax they might as well pack up or be replaced by those who can. The only thanks accountants get is harassment and technical inspectors unable to answer technical queries. 5. There have been occasions when I have rung HMRC and after going through a long maze to get a message we are too busy ring again. This is scandalous way of dealing with a call from a busy accountant. 6. We paid our vat bill using a debit card and some HMRC staff fraudulently took out money 3 times that was not due. We complained about 8 weeks ago and to date have had no reply. So it is dangerous to trust the HMRC with our bank accounts. 7. If a private organisation behaved in the way HMRC do it would have gone bankrupt by now. 8. They even give clients a lot of hassle to register to pay taxes especially the PAYE sections. A client wanted a payment book so she can pay the PAYE and they refused to give it to her. Even we tried then they told us the most complicated procedure for getting it after many weeks. That is HMRC for you. They do not even deal with genuine complaints properly neither do the vat. 9. Since HMRC is the most important part of government it should be most efficient. So HMRC should not be given any more powers till it does. It has too many powers already. 10. The tax statement they send are gobbledygook. Nobody can understand not even their staff. They need to have the bank statement format. 11. Some sections wont accept faxes and want us to post things to them so they get lost in transit and at HMRC. It is not a very green approach. 12. HMRC should make more use of emails to deal with accountants and save the trees and the environment. Please use modern technology to save money as well because emails are free. That is what you really need taxpayers and accountants email addresses for quick and efficient contact and communication instead of bank accounts. 13. Many times we get letters with contact details hidden or wrong or fax numbers missing or wrong. 14. Some staff can be down right nasty without any reason at all. HMRC raid on bank accounts goes against Magna Carta, say MPs ( Guardian article ) MPs say they are horrified by the tax authorities plans to dip into the personal bank accounts of 17,000 recalcitrant debtors. HMRC says it needs the powers to stop people gaming the system. Lin Homer Lin Homer, chief executive of HMRC, wants powers to raid the personal bank accounts of recalcitrant debtors. MPs said the proposals went against the provisions of Magna Carta. Photo: GETTY Louise ArmitsteadBy Louise Armitstead, Chief Business Correspondent 5:33PM BST 08 Jul 2014Comments203 Comments British tax authorities have been accused of attempting to ride roughshod over Magna Carta in pursuit of new powers that will allow them to raid the bank accounts of those who fail to pay their dues. MPs on the Treasury Select Committee said they were “horrified” by the proposals which HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) says it needs to recover tax from 17,000 “recalcitrant debtors”. Lin Homer, chief executive of HMRC, insisted that the powers would only be used in extreme circumstances and would never leave taxpayers short of “enough money to live.” However, she caused alarm by explaining that HMRC would be able to judge whether a debtor could afford to pay up because they would have access to 12 months of the target’s personal spending habits. The proposals are currently out for consultation until the end of July. In a marathon session lasting more than three hours, John Thurso, Liberal Democrat member of the Committee, said HMRC was asking for power to over-ride Magna Carta which sought to protect citizens’ rights from plundering kings 800 years ago. “We are talking about the ability of one organ of the state to have the unique right to go against the Magna Carta charter and go in and seize - without judicial process or review – a bank account,” he said. Steve Baker, Tory MP for Wycombe, told Ms Homer that HMRC was pleading “necessity” for new powers when in fact it was just “frustrated with a small number” of taxpayers. He said it reminded him of William Pitt’s famous view. The former prime minster said that “necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.” Related Articles HMRCs new powers against Magna Carta 08 Jul 2014 Could TV Licensing be given power to raid bank accounts? 08 Jul 2014 Cut Capital Gains Tax, everyone avoids paying it anyway 08 Jul 2014 How to maximise your buy-to-let profits 08 Jul 2014 Higher taxes are coming – get used to it 04 Jul 2014 Information on expats opening offshore accounts to be shared with HMRC 08 Jul 2014 Mobile content: more variables mean more opportunity Business Reporter Ms Homer said she disagreed that the new powers went against Magna Carta, insisting they were no different to the PAYE system by which employers take tax directly from salaries before it is paid. She said the 17,000 debtors were those deliberately don’t pay tax because they know HMRC doesn’t have the resources to track them down. “We don’t believe these are people who can’t pay, these are people who won’t pay and who are gaming the system,” she said. She told the MPs that the debtors owed an average of £5,800 each with many owing less than £1,000. She said HMRC knew that around half have £20,000 in savings while some have £100,000. She said the “gamers” had worked out that HMRC would send nine warning letters before taking action and would walk away once the bill was paid because going to court was inexpedient in most cases. One company she met openly admitted it paid its VAT bill several quarters late, choosing to use HMRC “like an overdraft”. Andrew Tyrie, Tory chairman of the Committee, argued if the powers were granted, that “prior independent oversight” was needed before HMRC raided a bank account. But Ms Homer argued that this would “diminish the effect” of the powers. “It would put us back into the situation where the recalcitrant debtors know we can’t progress without a court order.” “This is not disputed tax, this is tax that is due, that people who are not subject to PAYE are choosing simply not to pay and they are creating an environment within which the normally very low collection cost of tax is made substantially higher by their action, in a way which in the vast majority of cases is wilful.” She added: “I believe that for the taxpayer as a whole, it is right that we have sufficient powers to stop these limited numbers of people avoiding paying tax.” The MPs argued that the powers could be dangerous given the number of mistakes HMRC makes. In the same hearing Ms Homer was forced to apologise for calculation errors that meant HMRC over-stated the amount it had collected in tax. Last week, a report from the National Audit Office revealed HMRC had overestimated the amount of tax it had collected by £1.9bn a year. Ms Homer said she was “very sorry the error occurred”, adding that “one might have hoped that one of us might have spotted it.” George Mudie, Labour member of the Committee, said there was a strong chance the debtors could try and ring HMRC but not have their calls answered. Earlier in the session, he had berated Ms Homer for HMRC’s “atrocious” record of only answering one in five calls. “If you can’t run a call centre, how can you run the inland revenue?”, he asked. He added that if the record did not improve by next year, HMRC should “put some resignations on the table.” The MPs also asked about HMRC’s progress on cracking down on tax avoidance by international corporates. Ms Homer said the efforts were being led at an international level and that much of the public criticism was the result of “uninformed debate.” She said that in Britain “a lot of people will probably know and understand more about their mobile phone contracts than their relationship with the country on tax”, despite furious outcry over the tax arrangements of Starbucks, Google and Amazon. She said HMRC is “looking very seriously at taking tax into schools and colleges” to educate the population.
Posted on: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 12:44:01 +0000

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