Personal tax - Accountancy Age

Colin: HMRC FC defends relegation

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:58:11 GMT

HMRC spent less than £300,000 on Redknapp case

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:22:10 GMT

HM REVENUE & CUSTOMS has hit back at claims it spent excessive amounts of government funds in the tax case against Harry Redknapp and Milan Mandaric. A spokesman said the cost of investigations into former Portsmouth manager Redknapp, owner Mandaric and CEO Peter Storrie, racked up less than £300,000. "There's been a lot of nonsense talked about the costs of this investigation to HMRC," the spokesman said. "The...

HMRC court wins come in waves

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:49:56 GMT

Accountancy Age

The failure to convict a football manager for tax evasion after a five-year investigation and then see him tipped as the next England manager only hours later must be galling for HM Revenue and Customs. HMRC's statement that it had "no regrets" after a jury cleared Harry Redknapp on Wednesday of tax evasion is hard to believe, given how high profile the case was and how much effort was put into it. Like...

The lure of Liechtenstein

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:32:22 GMT

Accountancy Age

THE EXTENSION of an offshore tax amnesty with Liechtenstein shows that the tiny European principality has become the favoured banking destination for British tax evaders who want to go straight. Earlier this week the UK government extended an innovative offshore tax amnesty with Liechtenstein by one year. Under the Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility, Britons with banks accounts in Liechtenstein can settle tax liabilities on favourable terms. The deal allows Britons who come...

Taxman: 'No regrets' over failed £8m case against Redknapp and Mandaric

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:27:00 GMT

Accountancy Age

THE ACQUITAL of Harry Redknapp and Milan Mandaric marks an ignominious end to a five-year £8m police and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) investigation into alleged football corruption that secured not a single conviction. Both the police and the tax authorities defended the investigation on Wednesday night, with HMRC saying it had "no regrets" in pursuing former Portsmouth manager Redknapp and club owner Mandaric. But the failure to secure a single result despite...

Taxman: 'No regrets' over failure of £8m case against Redknapp and Mandaric

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:27:00 GMT

Accountancy Age

THE ACQUITAL of Harry Redknapp and Milan Mandaric marks an ignominious end to a five-year £8m police and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) investigation into alleged football corruption that secured not a single conviction. Both the police and the tax authorities defended the investigation on Wednesday night, with HMRC saying it had "no regrets". But the failure to secure a single result despite two trials - Mandaric and former Portsmouth chief executive Peter...

Taxman to target builders and home delivery tax cheats

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:35:02 GMT

Accountancy Age

HOME-IMPROVEMENT tradespeople such as roofers, bricklayers and carpenters, and people who make money from hand-delivered home catalogues are to be targeted by the taxman in the latest campaigns against tax evasion. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) investigators will also focus on people who fail to complete tax returns, particularly higher-rate taxpayers. HMRC reaffirmed plans to launch campaigns targeted at electricians and people who trade on e-marketplaces such as e-bay. Previous targets...

Ex-Vantis tax director jailed for shares fraud

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:49:00 GMT

Accountancy Age

A FORMER Vantis tax director has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for trying to defraud taxpayers of £70m. David Perrin, a former director at collapsed accountancy firm Vantis, spent his cut of the stolen cash on expensive second homes, exotic holidays, works of art and luxury cars, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) said. Perrin, who was deputy managing director at Vantis Tax, the listed firm which collapsed in 2010,...

UK government extends Liechtenstein tax disclosure agreement

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:37:00 GMT

Accountancy Age

THE UK Government has extended its tax agreement with Liechtenstein, giving British taxpayers one more year to come clean about tax owed. The Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility (LDF), which allows Britons with banks accounts in the tiny European principality to settle tax liabilities on favourable terms, was due to end to end in March 2015. But because of strong demand the disclosure facility will run until 5 April 2016. The LDF has...

OTS: Treasury should consider scrapping marriage allowance

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:02:00 GMT

Accountancy Age

THE TREASURY should consider scrapping the married couple's allowance and the 10% tax rate for savings income because they are little used and complicate the tax system, the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) is expected to recommend in a report before next month's Budget. One source familiar with the OTS, which was set up by Chancellor George Osborne in 2010, said its report will likely recommend that the Treasury should review the benefits...

P45 slips saved from redundancy

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:16:00 GMT

Accountancy Age

THE TAXMAN has decided not to scrap P45 slips after employers said they wanted to keep them. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), which is modernising the Pay As You Earn system, had planned to replace the forms for when employees move jobs with a "leaver statement". Under plans for "real time" PAYE, employers will send information about tax and national insurance deducted from employees' wages to HMRC when they are made...

Remove tax relief on bankers' pay, calls the TUC

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:39:00 GMT

Accountancy Age

REMOVING BANKERS' tax relief on their high earnings would raise nearly £2bn, claims trade union TUC. The union, in its Bonus Season report, calls on tax relief on high earnings (more than £262,000) to be disallowed as a deductible expense for corporation tax purposes. With figures suggesting that some third of the high earners in the UK come from the banking sector, that could equate to a £1.7bn take for the Treasury. ...

200,000 take advantage of extended filing deadline

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:11:56 GMT

Accountancy Age

MORE THAN 200,000 people took advantage of HMRC leniency to file their tax returns in the penalty-free first days of February. With the taxman allowing filings on 1 and 2 February penalty-free, after HMRC staff took part in a strike on the self-assessment deadline of 31 January, 207,000 submitted tax returns online. The taxman received 87,000 tax returns on 1 February, and 120,000 a day later. In total 9.45m returns were...

Thousands take advantage of extended filing deadline

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:11:00 GMT

Accountancy Age

Permanently check out of business record-keeping scheme

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:49:00 GMT

Accountancy Age

SO THE Business Record Checks scheme has been put on hold, until at least the start of the 2012/2013 tax year. The pilot scheme was borne of a consultation sneaked out at Christmas 2010 – for an end of February deadline – only for the record checking of thousands of SMEs to begin before the next step of the consultation was concluded. Of course, responses were universally hostile, warning of a lack of...

Permanently check out business record-keeping scheme

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:49:00 GMT

Accountancy Age

SO THE Business Record Checks scheme has been put on hold, until at least the start of the 2012/2013 tax year. The pilot scheme was borne of a consultation sneaked out at Christmas 2010 - for an end of February deadline - only for the record checking of thousands of SMEs to begin before the next step of the consultation was concluded. Of course, responses were universally hostile, warning of a lack of...

The Practitioner: Don't rate some clients...

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:25:27 GMT

Accountancy Age

OK. SO THAT'S IT. The deadline has passed. The hard work is over. It's now time to do the things on your list that you have kept putting off until after January. That time is now. Since the middle of November I have used the ‘it's a busy time of year for us' as an excuse to not do lots of things; 1. Not make appointments with companies trying...

Top civil servants to have tax deducted at source

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:38:51 GMT

Accountancy Age

CHIEF SECRETARY to the Treasury Danny Alexander has said that the head of the Student Loans Company would now have his tax deducted "at source." The government is investigating how the head of the Student Loans Company (SLC) arranged for Ed Lester's salary to be paid through a private service company, thereby avoiding deductions for income tax and national insurance, the BBC reports. Lester may potentially have saved tens of...

Treasury calls for review of top civil servants’ tax affairs

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:03:13 GMT

Accountancy Age

CHIEF SECRETARY to the Treasury Danny Alexander has called for a review of the tax affairs of top civil servants. The move comes after the BBC's Newsnight uncovered that the Student Loans Company CEO received his £182,000 pay without deductions for tax or national insurance following an agreement with HM Revenue & Customs. A Freedom of Information request by Exaro News revealed that SLC CEO Ed Lester's salary was paid to...

More than 400,000 tax returns filed yesterday despite strike

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:55:10 GMT

Accountancy Age

MORE THAN 400,000 people filed their self-assessment tax returns online yesterday, despite a strike by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) call centre workers. Some 443,543 returns were filed online on 31 January, compared to about 600,000 on the same day a year earlier, a spokesman for HMRC said. By midnight last night, 7,446,291 online tax returns had been submitted, up nearly 8% from the previous year. The normal deadline...

More than 400,000 tax returns filed despite strike

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:55:00 GMT

Accountancy Age

Online tax returns up 10% in 2011

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:28:17 GMT

Accountancy Age

MORE THAN seven million people have filed tax returns online so far this year - an increase of around 10% from a year ago. A spokesman for HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) said it had received 7,002,748 tax returns online by 30 January, compared to 6,334,956 a year earlier. Nearly 400,000 people filed tax returns yesterday. The normal deadline for submitting tax returns is 31 January, but the taxman has said...

Mandaric claims payments to Redknapp were voluntary

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:12:06 GMT

Accountancy Age

MILAN MANDARIC, the ex-Portsmouth chairman accused of paying bungs to Harry Redknapp, has described payments he made to Redknapp's bank account as being "something entirely different" from football. Redknapp and Mandaric are accused of two counts of cheating the public revenue when Redknapp was manager of Portsmouth. It is alleged that the pair fraudulently concealed payments totalling $295,000 (£188,000) from HM Revenue & Customs by paying the money into a Monaco bank account....

HMRC workers strike on day of tax return deadline

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:40:00 GMT

Accountancy Age

THOUSANDS OF call-centre workers at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are expected to hold a one-day strike on Tuesday in protest over privatisation. The strike has led to a delay in the deadline for filing self-assessment tax returns. The one-day walkout on the normal deadline day for filing self-assessment tax returns has forced HMRC to give taxpayers two extra days to send their returns before imposing a £100 penalty. ...

Tax filing extension suits the taxman

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:30:43 GMT

Accountancy Age

IT'S NOT A SURPRISE TO ME that this extension of the tax return deadline is being presented as a generous gesture on the part of HMRC. However, I'm sure that this is a deliberately strategic move. An extension neatly prevents the inevitable onslaught of letters the Revenue would have received as a result of asking taxpayers to claim in writing if they believed the strike on the 31st had prevented them from meeting...