a Tax Accountants Experience and expertise is highly valued in tax planning and hmrc investigations5/22/2023 Tax Affinity Accountants are rated as experts in Tax and Accounting Industry and because of our experience and expertise with Tax we can help clients to both legally minimise their tax and make the best plans for the future. We never recommend breaking any rules but instead using our expertise know that there is more than enough scope with the framework to legally reduce taxes and still have the peace of mind. And because we stay abreast with the latest changes and developments we are are always at the forefront of advising clients when things change. And you know your in safe hand because Tax Affinity are experts in tax law with a good working relationship with HMRC. There to there to help and support clients if they are involved in a HMRC tax or VAT investigation or have a Worldwide Disclosure / Let Property Campaign letter etc to respond to. We are always able to successfully support and guide clients to the best possible outcome. Just ask one of our many happy clients who sing our praises. Below is a list of just some of the things we can help with. If what your looking for is not listed we most likely are still able to do it but just didnt want to make the list too long. Give us a call and have a chat with one of our tax experts or come into one of our high street branches - we will be happy to help. - Inheritance tax planning for landlords with estates between £1million - £250million - Capital gains tax planning - Transferring properties into a limited company - Incorporation - Offshore tax planning - HMRC Tax and VAT Investigations - Code of Practice 8 and 9 investigations - Alternate Dispute Resolution - Tax Tribunals - Forensic Accounting - Worldwide Disclosure Facility - Let Property Campaign - HMRC Check of Self Assessment / Tax - Contractual Disclosure Facility (CDF) - Code of Practice 8 / 9 / 11 / 14 - Section 144 Enquiry - Section 12A TMA 1970 Notice Investigations - Code of Practice 11 (Local Compliance Offices) - Code of Practice 14 Investigation (Company Tax Return Investigations) By Anni Khan at Tax Affinity Accountants Tax Affinity Accountants are experts Business, Tax and Accountancy. With branches in Worcester Park and Kingston upon Thames and Epsom and Ewell they are considered in the Industry to be expert business accountants and tax advisors for both individuals and small & medium sized businesses (SME's). Helping and supporting both individuals and limited company owners / self employed people throughout the UK and the world, they regularly help clients grow their business providing tailored advice and support. Their support has been considered invaluable by many clients and key to their success. For more information visit www.taxaffinity.com. To read more interesting articles like this visit www.taxaffinity.com/blog. Please feel free to comment and share this with your friends.
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Last year over 30,000 people filed their tax returns between christmas eve and boxing day12/19/2021 Did you know last year more than 30,000 people in the UK did their tax return between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day?
As of writing this, there are only 20 working days left until HMRC's self assessment deadline of 31st Jan 2022. Each year millions of people leave their tax return (self assessment) to the last minute and then stress out if they declared the info correctly and if the tax due is correct. Statistically the number one worry tends to be if their submission may trigger an HMRC investigation into their tax affairs... death and taxes being the fear we suppose. Plus in the last tax year due to Covid 19 and lockdown's there were many other sources of income e.g. council support grants, SEISS (self employed grants), furlough, bounce back loans, universal credit, tax credits etc. Making tax returns more complicated and resulting with higher taxes due for most tax payers. If your worried we recommend you get in touch with one of our tax experts. Because we have seen a lot more investigations this year than previous years as HMRC starts it claw back to try to shore up the UK government income and focuses even more on tax avoidance and incorrect information. So if you have not had your 2020/21 (6.4.20 to 5.4.21) tax return (self assessment) completed then you urgently need to get in touch today as the number of working days are fast decreasing and before you know it the time will be gone and you may end up facing badly caclulated tax return paying more tax than you need to or worse a fine by HMRC for missing the deadline. Contact us today by clicking this link or calling us on the number above. And share this page with your friends and family. By Anni Khan at Tax Affinity Accountants Tax Affinity Accountants are experts in Tax and Accountancy. With branches in Worcester Park and Kingston upon Thames and Epsom and Ewell they are considered in the Industry to be expert business accountants and tax advisors for small and medium sized businesses (SME's). Helping and supporting limited company owners and self employed people throughout the UK, they regularly help clients grow their business providing tailored advice and support. Their support has been considered invaluable by many clients and key to their success. For more information visit www.taxaffinity.com. To read more interesting articles like this visit www.taxaffinity.com/blog. Please feel free to comment and share this with your friends. Sometimes some a tax payer will have their tax return amended by HMRC after it was submitted. This is a normal thing and nothing to worry about. As it means that HMRC are checking to make sure the information on the tax return matches with the information they hold from other sources e.g. PAYE, CIS etc.
An example is if your tax return did not mention a former employer in the tax year and HMRC records show there was a former employer and some income and tax paid at that employer may affect the bottom final tax figure. This means there could be a difference in the final amount of tax due or refund due from HMRC to you. Sometimes this is not even your fault as you may have handed the new employer your P45 from the previous employer and the new employer should have start your PAYE using the P45 income and tax figures and carry forward from there, but for a number of reasons the new employer could not do this and therefore the tax code is set on a default standard code meaning you have received 2 lots of tax free allowance in a year. When this happens towards the end of the tax year (April) HMRC cannot send a notice to amend the tax code to the employer in time to adjust the over / under paid tax. So, they wait instead for the information to be included in the tax return to automatically update with the full info for the year. Therefore it's not a problem but a normal procedure by HMRC to ensure a tax payer is correctly aligned with their records held and their tax paid is correct. Unfortunately for a tax payer, sometimes this means handing back some of a tax refund as paid by HMRC previously or having a higher tax bill at the end of the tax year. By Anni Khan at Tax Affinity Accountants Tax Affinity Accountants are experts in Tax and Accountancy. With branches in Surbiton , Worcester Park , Kingston upon Thames , Cheam and Epsom they are considered in the Industry to be expert accountants and tax advisors for small businesses. Helping and supporting business throughout the UK, they regularly help clients grow their business providing tailored advice and support. For more information visit www.taxaffinity.com. To read more interesting articles like this visit www.taxaffinity.com/blog. Please feel free to comment and share this with your friends. HMRC has dramatically increased the number of raids on business premises in the last year as part of further criminal investigations into taxpayers.
After receiving extra resources by the UK Government, HMRC have searched over 761 premises, an increase of over 28% on the last year. They are clearly actively looking to secure more prosecutions for tax evasion. With a search warrant granted by a judge or magistrate HMRC now has the power to raid suspected premises, to try to seize vital evidence to help it secure a prosecution for tax evasion. And Limited companies are not off the hook either, as there is a HMRC proposal for a new corporate offence to be created, which would hold companies criminally responsible if they do not prevent staff, contractors etc from trying to commit tax evasion. Currently the UK government is reviewing responses to its consultation paper on the draft legislation. And as a tax evasion investigation can be typically complicated and very time intensive. Due to people often using elaborate ways to cover up their tracks. The best way is for HMRC to have a 'shock and awe tactic' that gets them first hand access to all personal files, emails/texts etc searching an individuals homes or business. So we recommend all business owners to be aware and to ensure they are complaint at all times with the current rules and regulations avoiding illegal tax avoidance schemes and practises. There are plenty of legal ways to use current tax allowances and permitted deductible expenses that an expert Tax Accountant like Tax Affinity Accountants can help you fairly minimise your tax bill. So if you feel you need any advice feel free to contact us and we would be happy to help and guide you as best we can. By Anni Khan at Tax Affinity Accountants Tax Affinity Accountants are experts in Tax and Accountancy. Based in Worcester Park and Kingston upon Thames they are considered in the Industry to be expert accountants and tax advisors for small businesses. Helping and supporting business throughout the UK, they regularly help clients grow their business providing tailored advice. For more information visit www.taxaffinity.com. To read more interesting articles like this visit www.taxaffinity.com/blog. Please feel free to comment and share this with your friends. IR35 is the name of piece of 'intermediaries legislation' by HMRC which is designed to establish whether a contractor is considered self employed or employed for tax purposes.
An investigation can be triggered by HMRC either as a random check or when they find a contractor that they suspect of being declared as self employed but actually working in a manner like an employee and therefore paying less tax than normal. They call such a person a 'disguised employee'. There are certain key signals to HMRC if someone is a 'disguised employee'. And a few of these are listed below:
Contractors therefore need to be aware and compliant to the rules and regulations of working and make sure certain things are in place to ensure safety for both the company they are working for and for themselves. An experienced quality accountant like Tax Affinity Accountants can help you to be safe and ensure procedures and practices are in place to ensure you are compliant. If you are worried you should contact us as soon as possible. By Anni Khan at Tax Affinity Accountants Tax Affinity Accountants are experts in Tax and Accountancy. Based in Worcester Park and Kingston upon Thames they are considered in the Industry to be expert accountants and advisors for small businesses. Helping and supporting business throughout the UK, they regularly help clients grow their business providing tailored advice. For more information visit www.taxaffinity.com. To read more interesting articles like this visit www.taxaffinity.com/blog. Please feel free to comment and share this with your friends. Unfortunately HMRC can start an investigation into your tax affairs at anytime, we have seen them go back up to 10 years and heard of rare cases going back as far as 20 years (although its normally in the last few years and more than 6 years - because banks only hold statements for this long).
If your unlucky enough to receive a letter stating HMRC are checking your tax return, it can be a very tense and stressful time even if you have done nothing wrong. HMRC investigations can occur for a variety of reasons: Usually its a mistake that HMRC can see whilst looking through the information you have submitted to them in the past. The mistake can be of any type and scale of seriousness so it shouldn't be taken lightly. If you spot a mistake and tell HMRC about it, they will still have to open an investigation but it will be less severe. Sometimes, a business is selected for investigation at random, HMRC will pick a few businesses in an area, maybe that are tax-fraud hotspots, just to make sure there is no tax evasion going on. HMRC also has sophisticated software that will spot trends in your paperwork submitted and if certain figures flag up for investigation or are hugely different to the industry average, they will look into why this is. And sometimes a related business is being investigated and this leads HMRC to think about you and your business also. ie when HMRC formally request information from third-parties such as banks and other businesses to investigate them they notice your business and then spot check into you as well. The letter from HMRC will normally detail what direction the investigation will be taking. When you receive this letter, you should act fast because if you don't have all the required information ready when the investigation starts, you will be seen as unorganised and if you are uncooperative, they will be less lenient on you. Read our previous blogs on HMRC Investigations for more information. A Tax Accountant’s expertise and negotiation experience will help you greatly both financially and emotionally. We see families bear a huge amount of personal stress during investigations and it helps to shoulder some of that responsibility on a person who knows the system and can safeguard your interests. As always with a good tax accountants the fees that you may have to pay will be far outweighed by the amount of tax saved in direct negotiations with HMRC. An experienced accountant will know what the next move by HMRC will be. And this helps protect you if there is a request for anything unusual. Also this helps prevents you from submitting too much information or making the investigation drag on longer than it should. The key is to co-operate with both your Tax Accountant and HMRC so the investigation is over quickly as possible. By Anni Khan at Tax Affinity Accountants Tax Affinity Accountants are experts in Tax and Accountancy. With offices in Surbiton and Worcester Park in the Royal borough of Kingston upon Thames they are considered to be experts in all types of Accounting and Tax issues. Helping and supporting businesses and individuals throughout the UK. For more information visit www.taxaffinity.com. To read more interesting articles like this visit www.taxaffinity.com/blog. Please feel free to comment and share this with your friends. Online Sellers to be targeted by HMRC for investigation.
At Tax Affinity Accountants we have always been at the forefront inside knowledge and key advice and support for all of our clients. And we know that every tax year HMRC picks a category of business to focus its investigations on. We have been successfully guiding and helping those effected by investigations for many years. For the 2014/15 it was Landlords and Property Developers, for 2013/14 it was Electricians and Tutors 2012/13 it was Builders and Decorators. This tax year 2015/16 we have credible information that it is individuals selling items and services on Autotrader, Gumtree, Ebay, Amazon, E-Auctions, Craigslist, AirBnb and other online platforms that will be investigation for undeclared incomes. HMRC says it wants to target those that have failed to register for and pay the correct amount of tax. It thinks that this could amount to as much as £5.9 billion of missed tax. And so it is currently starting a consultation on extending their powers even further than before to be to collect data on companies and individuals from other sources. So far, Ebay has been sympathetic to the request from HMRC and says that it has tried to identify to its sellers their obligations to the tax authorities of the relevant country in which they trade. And have said that they would share information with the tax authorities where there is evidence of wrongdoing. And so it's highly likely other online platforms will be following suit. HMRC has said it is better that an online seller should come forward and volunteer to put their affairs in order as it will only be a matter of time before they will catch up them. They went on to say that they will not be targeting people selling personal property, but rather those that sell large quantities of similar or categorised items. And they will get the source information directly from the web and the online platform providers. From our experience investigations can take at least 6 months with some lasting up to 2 years and always cause a lot of stress upon individuals and their families. Especially as the penalties and fines can be up to a further 100% on top the tax due. If you are concerned about how this may affect your business we recommend you contact your local Tax Affinity Office and ask for more detailed help. By Anni Khan at Tax Affinity Accountants. Tax Affinity Accountants are experts in Tax and Accountancy. Based in Kingston upon Thames they provide a bespoke service to client’s right across the UK and are considered in the industry to be experts. For more information visit www.taxaffinity.com. To read more interesting articles like this visit www.taxaffinity.com/blog. Please feel free to comment and share this with your friends. Keeping records for HMRC inspections for at least 5 years If you are self employed or have some part of your income which is self employment then you are required to send or submit a tax return to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) for any relevant tax years applicable. This also means that you will have to keep all the records that aided you in completing the tax return accurately and correctly. Because HMRC can decide to double check your accounts and tax return at any time, without reason, and ask you to present all your records relevant to that year at one of their offices. And if the investigation officer feels that you have not kept sufficiently detailed records, then he or she may apply a penalty and further taxes based on their estimate for the period. As you can imagine this can be very stressful and difficult time for anybody. However, you won’t have to pay a penalty or extra tax if you can clearly demonstrate that you took reasonable care to get your information and therefore tax return right and any errors if present were unintentional. This can be demonstrated by being as helpful and available as possible to the HMRC staff. Below are some of the ways in which you can show you have tried your best to have the correct information and have taken reasonable care for the tax return to be correct:
Keep five to ten years worth of records at least. HMRC guidance states that if you are self employed or in a partnership, then you are required to keep all your records for at least five years from the 31st January following a tax year (a tax year run from 6th April to 5th April each year). And corporation tax (company tax) records will normally have to be kept for at least six years from the end of the companies annul accounting period (as stated on your Companies House records). But if the submission is overdue or is required to be double checked by HMRC then the records need to be kept for longer and there is no specific guideline as to how many years this can go back. And to complicate things further, the exact time you need to keep your records will fluctuate depending on your situation and the opinions of HMRC’s investigating staff’s opinions. So it is highly recommended to keep at least 10 years worth of records if not all of them from the start. Don’t forget the filing. If you do not have a safe and accurate record keeping system in place, it can very rapidly descend into in whole lot of stress and trouble with HMRC. Relying on excel spreadsheets or pen and paper records to do your accounts are not always reliable either. As paper can get damaged or lost, ink can fade, spreadsheets can unintentionally be altered, formulas can become corrupted and before you know it your books could be in a right old mess. And when you come back to look at them 4 years down the line, it’s highly likely you won’t remember what the figures relate to or what the formula was. Recent research carried out by as software provider of 500 small business owners found that a huge 75% rely on pen and paper or spreadsheets to track their finances. And of that amount, 31% have made errors with HMRC returns which for 14% resulted in a fine - worrying statistics indeed. How can you avoid problems? So what can you do now to help yourself? - Well below are some of the records you will need to keep:
Clients often ask how long they should keep their records for expecting us to say for at least a year or two. And are surprised when we say at least 5 years and up to 10 years because we have seen firsthand HMRC amend tax liabilities due for up to 9 years in the past. And, that if the client has not kept the evidence to argue against the charges they have little chance in getting HMRC to change their mind. So it’s not worth the risk. An experienced and qualified firm of accountants, such as Tax Affinity Accountants, will also securely hold their own records for your accounts also and this can lead to a safety net in case of any investigations or tax amendments further down the line as the precise type of records required will depend on the type of business that you run and the type of tax that you need to pay. HMRC won’t accept excuses for why you have not kept the precise records but when it’s you and your accountant against the tax man – two against one will always have a better outcome. By Tahir Malik and Andrew at Tax Affinity Accountants. HMRC can open an investigation into your tax affairs at anytime, and can request to go back up to 20 years (although it is normally no later than 6 years). When you receive a letter stating HMRC are pending an investigation, it can be a very tense and stressful time even if you have done nothing wrong. Investigations can occur for a variety of reasons. The most frequent is an obvious mistake that HMRC can see whilst looking through the information you have submitted to them. The mistake can be on any scale of seriousness so should not be taken lightly. If you spot a mistake and tell HMRC about it, they will still have to open an investigation still but it will be less severe and strict. Sometimes, a business selected for an investigation is totally random, HMRC will pick a few businesses in an area, maybe that are tax-fraud hotspots, just to make sure there is no tax evasion going on. HMRC are also the epitome of suspicious. If your sales figure has gone drastically up or down from one year to the next or are hugely different to the industry average, they will look into why this is. The letter from HMRC will normally have clues on it as to why you are being investigated. It will also detail what direction the investigation will be taking. When you receive this letter, the emphasis is to act fast as if you do not have all the required information ready and at hand when the investigation starts, you will be seen as unorganised. HMRC have the ability to request information from third-parties such as banks and other businesses. This is the extreme as normally they will look for co-operation, from the person being investigated, which will not only speed the whole process, but reduce any fines or penalties incurred. This can be just allowing them access to your files or it could be letting them interview you for a day. If you have made clear and obvious mistakes but do not allow HMRC access to your documents, the fine can be doubled, making it much worse for you. The effect of not co-operating on your business is as follows:
The general trend is that it is at this stage people will go and ask for professional help. The best people to see are tax accountants such as Tax Affinity Accountants who can help in various ways with the investigation. Some are below:
Even when the investigation has finished, there is no guarantee that you will not be investigated again. If you were randomly investigated one year and then the next year your profit figure increased dramatically, you could well actually be at risk of being investigated again. HMRC will not take to kindly either if you have already been found to be responsible in a previous investigation and then continue to make mistakes in subsequent years. This blog might seem all doom and gloom but regulations are in place for the amount of tax that should be paid by either businesses or individuals. HMRC just apply this regulation as it would be unfair for some people to get away with not paying enough tax. If you have done nothing wrong, or even make an innocent mistake, HMRC will not be aggressive or disruptive. If you co-operative with them, they will ensure the investigation is as pain free for you as possible. A Tax Accountant’s expertise and experience will help you greatly both financially and emotionally. As the fees that you may have to pay will be far outweighed by the amount of tax saved in direct negotiations with HMRC. They know what the situation is and what the next move by HMRC will probably be. This means that anything unusual going on by HMRC will be noticed and prevents you from submitting too much information or making the investigation drag on longer than it should. The key is to co-operate with both your Tax Accountant and HMRC so the investigation is over quickly and as By Owen Cain at Tax Affinity Accountants |
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