Tax Tips

HMRC are warning that a large scale scam email is at large: “Customers are strongly advised to lookout for a new phishing scam. If you get an email with the subject, “Your 2016 Tax Report”, with an attachment, do not open it. Please forward it to phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk and then delete it. For more advice, please […]

HMRC have lost a recent tax penalties case heard by the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) on 24 April 2017.  HMRC had applied daily penalties of £10 per day for late filing of a personal tax return.  HMRC could not provide evidence that the tax payer had been properly warned of such penalties. As with all […]

Where additional tax is payable as the result of an HMRC enquiry and it is shown that the additional tax is due to poor accounting records, the maximum penalty that can be imposed is 30% of the additional tax for failure to take reasonable care. Where the error is deliberate, the penalty will be between […]

New rules are soon to come in to effect for all registered qualified accountants and tax advisers to reduce aggressive tax avoidance.  The rules are summarised as: “Members must not create, encourage or promote tax planning arrangements or structures that i) set out to achieve results that are contrary to the clear intention of Parliament […]

In a recent case, the First Teir Tribunal ordered that a tax payers penalty be suspended despite HMRC arguing the penalty was payable. HMRC often draw unwarranted restrictions on which types of penalties can be suspended. If you have a tax penalty for a “careless error”, but can take a clear action to ensure the […]

TaxAid is a charity that helps people who perhaps can’t afford accountants, to sort out their tax affairs.  A recent article in Taxation magazine highlighted some stories of people TaxAid has helped, here is one of the stories: “Take Greg, who one morning found a bankruptcy notice on his doormat. His mental capacity had been […]

Here at Green Accountancy we always want to check income against actual bank statements.  This applies to companies, sole traders, landlords letting income, personal tax, VAT returns, pretty much all work we do.  A recent tax case highlighted the benefit of checking income to bank statements.  HMRC found there was income on bank statements not […]

A recent tax case highlighted one of the benefits of online submissions.  The taxpayer submitted two forms to HMRC by post, but HMRC never received them.  HMRC imposed penalties of £1280 for late filing of the forms (which incidentally had no tax due on them).  The taxpayer appealed on the grounds that the forms had […]

The new Chencellor of the Exchequer will present his first autumn statement on 23 November 2016.  If you have ideas for him to take on board, you can add them here Friday 7 October 2016.

Carbon Credits are part of the transferable permits system aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  These add to the cost of polluters, along with environmental taxes.  Unfortunately the prices are so low as to be ineffective.  The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) report that the cost of polluting with 1 Tonne of CO2 […]

HMRC are currently consulting on Making Tax Digital (we blogged a summary of this here earlier).   If you would like to hear from the HMRC mouth directly go along (or connect to) one of HMRC’s events on MTD.

HMRC are publicising the worldwide disclosure facility asking UK taxpayers to take this final chance to declare previously hidden overseas income, assets and gains.  Making such a declaration could reduce the level of penalties charged on any associated tax bill.  Taxpayers have until 30 September 2018 to make use of the facility.  More details on […]

HMRC never email tax payers about refunds, penalties or to ask for bank details.  Always be on guard against email scams.  It is wise to hover on links to see the website the link points to before clicking. Please spend a few minutes having a look through the following web pages from HMRC. Published 30.8.16:  […]

HMRC have pronounced some of their thoughts on what to avoid in tax planning.  Things to avoid include: a scheme or suggestion that seems too good to be true pay in the form of a loan tax savings out of proportion with the cost or amounts of money involved situations money just goes around in […]

Making Tax Digital (MTD) is HMRC’s strategy to modernise tax administration for taxpayers.  Some highlights from their latest published MTD time-line include: 2016 test digital reporting of accounts by some small businesses testing using the RTI (payroll real time information) system to report back to tax payers how their personal allowances are used 2017 test […]

This being the first in the series of “grow your business” ideas – we’ll start with the most obvious business development tip of all time: To increase your sales figure you can: Increase the number of customers Increase the number of times each one does business with you Increase the average value of each transaction […]

HMRC have updated their really good factsheet on penalties.  This six page PDF gives a good overview and useful amount of detail relating to penalties for all taxes.  The factsheet is available here.   If you would like detailed specific advice on penalties please contact us.