Intervention idiocy
No sooner does one door open than another slams shut on your foot...
With Lord Carter having said that he has changed his mind, it seems likely that the official announcement from the government will come soon, though why they are prolonging the agony is anyone's guess. However, in the meantime another innovation guaranteed to get agents' blood pressure up has started.
We highlighted the new 'interventions' in this week's magazine, and asked for details of what was happening on the ground. We've already had two replies. The first was a version of an 'enabling letter' which was as bad as usual, but it had nothing on the 'real time records review'. Agent receives phone call 'as a courtesy' to say that their client was about to be called with an 'invitation' for an HMRC officer to go and check that her record-keeping was up to scratch- for direct tax, not VAT. No pressure, entirely up to the client, etc.
An immediate call to the client revealed that HMRC had already called, that the client had felt under some pressure to agree, but that as a small hotelier had been able to put them off - they will ring back in September. The agent has given firm instructions that HMRC should be told to contact the agents when they do.
HMRC have been given no extra powers to do this, and there has been very little consultation about the way they are going to do it. Until there is, our suggestion would be 'just say no'.
With Lord Carter having said that he has changed his mind, it seems likely that the official announcement from the government will come soon, though why they are prolonging the agony is anyone's guess. However, in the meantime another innovation guaranteed to get agents' blood pressure up has started.
We highlighted the new 'interventions' in this week's magazine, and asked for details of what was happening on the ground. We've already had two replies. The first was a version of an 'enabling letter' which was as bad as usual, but it had nothing on the 'real time records review'. Agent receives phone call 'as a courtesy' to say that their client was about to be called with an 'invitation' for an HMRC officer to go and check that her record-keeping was up to scratch- for direct tax, not VAT. No pressure, entirely up to the client, etc.
An immediate call to the client revealed that HMRC had already called, that the client had felt under some pressure to agree, but that as a small hotelier had been able to put them off - they will ring back in September. The agent has given firm instructions that HMRC should be told to contact the agents when they do.
HMRC have been given no extra powers to do this, and there has been very little consultation about the way they are going to do it. Until there is, our suggestion would be 'just say no'.
posted by Mike at 2:33 pm
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