Earlier today I wrote
Harry Redknapp has made tax fun and has allowed me to talk to football supporters for the first time in my life and be knowledgeable too!
The editor of AccountingWEB thought it good enough to include in their story on the Harry Redknapp case, which has had to be pulled because the comments may have been in contempt of court. And you thought accountants were boring!
I have never known so many people of differing backgrounds and interests follow a tax case so closely. Yesterday I found myself reading tweets from James Pearce, the BBC Sports News Correspondent, who is at the court. Every so often, he has to leave the courtroom so that he can send a tweet, Twitter and presumably the use of smartphones are forbidden in the courtroom itself.
I was so impressed with his coverage of events that I added him to my Twitter list, TaxTweets, so thatI could read his tweets easier. Bearing in mind this list includes HMRC, Taxation magazine and The Tax Journal I thought I should at least tweet him and tell him, never expecting an answer.
The deadline for applying for an Activation Code was yesterday and without one you can’t submit an online Tax Return.
Typically HMRC aren’t very helpful as what you should do next. Click on Do it online today on the HMRC homepage and you’re told
You must send your tax return online by midnight on Tuesday 31 January 2012.
Unfortunately you don’t have many options left and you may well have to pay the £100 penalty but these suggestions may help:
- Apply for an Activation Code, you may be lucky and receive it before the deadline which will allow you to submit your return online.
- Don’t whatever you do submit a paper return as you will incur a penalty of £100 automatically. The deadline for paper returns was 31 October 2011.
- Ask a friendly accountant if they will submit your tax return on your behalf. Strangely we (accountants) can submit a Tax Return for anyone as long as we have their Unique Tax Reference (UTR). They’ll charge you but commercial sense would suggest a fee of less than £100! And don’t forget that if you’re self employed you can claim tax relief on this, reducing the fee by about 30%. The £100 penalty doesn’t qualify for tax relief.
Before Christmas I had my doubts about the HMRC press releases but the latest from the NDS has convinced me that Alastair Campbell is their new in-house writer.
Titled
Accountant sang sick song as he ripped off the public
it’s important that I state at this stage that I think the individual involved, David Perrin, is a crook and deserves everything he’ll have thrown at him (prison and confiscation proceedings).
What I do question is the description ‘accountant’ because he
worked for the former Inland Revenue in the late 80s/early 90s.
See Note 1 of the press release!
Perhaps “ex-Revenue employee” should have featured somehere in the heading?
The Wikipedia entry for Vantis (the firm where he was a director) gives us an insight into the crook’s character:
n October 2009, Roy Faichney and David Perrin were suspended and later dismissed by Vantis after HMRC charged them with offences relating to abuse of Gift Aid tax relief. They denied the charges and commenced action against Vantis for wrongful dismissal.
If anyone needs their tax return doing, contact @ he's quick, efficient a pleasure to deal with. Also knows @ well. Thanks Shealan.
31 January 2012:
Deadline for individual UK taxpayers to submit 2010/11 tax returns and pay up, on pain of penalties.
31 July 2015:
Deadline for Vodafone (profits:£10bn per year) to pay up on the cushy deal reached in 2010/11 to settle its multi-billion-pound offshore tax avoidance dispute.
As revealed in Private Eye No. 1305 13 January – 26 January 2012
We need more chartered accountants like Mad Mike Hoare. 
Instead of throwing him out of the Institute he should have been made President and C.E.O.
I can’t see him kowtowing to Dave Hartnett at HMRC.
With only 47 days to go until the tax return deadline (see timer in sidebar), the 3CA flying pig has been launched to reflect the likelihood of all returns being submitted on time!
This is the pig at work.
This is the pig himself.
Last year I was banned from our local shopping centre for taking a photo of the UK Uncut protest against Topshop. This year I have put my money where my mouth is and sent UK Uncut a donation to protest against HMRC’s unfair treatment of small businesses compared to “big business”. If you’re sick of paying so much tax why don’t you do the same. Your tax bill won’t change but you’ll feel better when Goldman Sachs has to cough up £20 million and the head of HMRC has to resign!
This is how UK Uncut reported the latest news that the loss to the government (us) may have been £20 million and not £10 million as thought originally.
If the HMRC whistleblower is correct, taking Goldman Sachs and HMRC to court could claw back £20m rather than £10m. Quids-in! The full story is in The Guardian. Don’t forget that this is on top of the £5 million which Dave Hartnett HMRC “didn’t collect” from Vodaphone.
So, if you want to get your own back on HMRC make a donation to UK Uncut and watch the fur fly.
This is how HMRC wish accountants a Merry Christmas, managing at the same time to be politically correct.
Thanks and a very Merry Christmas to you too.
I know this is a joke but having seen the 
full range of accounting records over the years, ranging from none to a full, hand-written, double-entry system I’m just a little worried that somebody will think this is all that is needed to comply with HMRC’s advice on keeping records.
On a more serious note, HMRC have spent a considerable amount of time and money putting things in place to stop businesses being able to plead ignorance when it comes to bookkeeping.
Leaflets such as Keeping records for business – what you need to know have not been produced for our benefit. They are there so that HMRC can penalise businesses for poor bookkeeping.
The penalties are large (up to £3,000) so your New Year resolution may well have to be
I’m going to improve my books
P.S. Joke or no joke, I don’t want to see one of these tins ever. Least of all from a client.
