HMRC / 27 posts found
Football agent scores massive own goal
HMRC were quick to publicise their victory in a recent tax case that resulted in a well-known football agent facing a £1.2m tax bill. According to their press release, former football agent Jerome Anderson lost his £1.2 million tax battle with HMRC during a case heard at the Upper Tribunal. This showed that Anderson and eight others failed in their attempt to avoid large amounts of tax. The scheme involved investments in the recruitment and training of young footballers at the Bafana Soccer Academy in South Africa. Anderson attempted to use this investment to claim a £3 million artificial [...]
Undeclared offshore assets
From 1 October more than 100 countries, including the UK, will be able to exchange data on financial accounts under the Common Reporting Standard (CRS). CRS data will significantly enhance HMRC’s ability to detect offshore non-compliance and it is in taxpayers’ interests to correct any non-compliance before that data is received. The most common reasons for declaring offshore tax are in relation to foreign property, investment income and moving money into the UK from abroad. According to HMRC, over 17,000 people have already notified the department about tax due from sources of foreign income, such as their holiday homes [...]
Are you missing out on tax credits?
There has been much commentary in recent months reminding tax payers who claim tax credits to file their renewals application before the 31 July deadline. But apparently, many applications have been made incorrectly, and as a result, claimants are not collecting the full amount to which they are entitled. According to a recent announcement by HMRC, many parents do not realise that they need to deduct any statutory parental pay from their salary when renewing tax credits. In more detail, HMRC advise: Thousands of parents could be at risk of missing out on hundreds of pounds from [...]
Don’t fall for spoof “taxman” emails
New figures show that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) requested a record 20,750 malicious sites to be taken down in the past 12 months, an increase of 29% on the previous year. Despite a record number of malicious sites being removed, HMRC is warning the public to stay alert as millions of taxpayers remain at risk of losing substantial amounts of money to online crooks. The warning comes as Scam Awareness month, run by Citizens Advice, draws to a close. HMRC has brought in cutting edge technology to tackle cyber-crime and target fraudsters. However, the public needs to be aware and report phishing [...]
Penalties to be points based
Drivers face disqualification from driving if they accumulate 12 or more penalty points for driving offences. The resulting ban can last from 4 to possibly 11 years depending on the gravity of the offence. HMRC seem to think that this point based system is a good idea and they now intend to include draft clauses to the forthcoming Finance Bill that will introduce a points system covering the late filing of tax returns. In their notes attached to the draft clauses HMRC say: The government wishes to encourage compliance with regular return submission obligations but does not [...]
Advance notice
Last week the Treasury issued draft clauses for the forthcoming Finance Bill (to be published after the Autumn Budget later this year). These will set the scene for tax matters 2019-20 and beyond. The aim of the advance notice is to give interested parties a chance to comment on the contents before government starts the formal process of processing the legislation through Parliament. The draft clauses include numerous technical changes to legislation that are outside the scope of this article, but a cross-section of the more “interesting” disclosures are set out below: Technical changes to various benefit [...]
Tax security deposits to be extended
We have listed below details of a forthcoming change to the taxation of companies that were disclosed in the draft clauses published last week for the forthcoming budget. The change outlined expands the rights of HMRC to demand a security deposit from “at risk” tax payers. In their draft notes HMRC say: HMRC can require some businesses to provide a security, in the form of cash or a performance bond, where this is considered necessary to protect the revenue. Securities may be required where a taxpayer has a poor compliance record and in “phoenix” type cases where a [...]