I’m taking February off to catch up with some work – like other work rather than Tax-Hell work. Oh, the site needs some updating some bad links have appeared. Not only is HMRC moving the goalposts they are changing all their web pages too, so much of the stuff that links to them for reference needs to be updated after only 7 – 8 months. But like everybody else I’ve got rent to find and it’s difficult to balance everything up. People email me regularly saying how useful they have found the site but nobody has ever donated a penny. It’s true, not a penny. Nobody. Look on the menu bar to the right side you will see ‘Donate‘ and that leads to a simple page with a PayPal button – I don’t even truly know if it works as it’s never been used!
We are doing great and groundbreaking work, please be part of it and give until you start to feel searing pain.
Photo: Jonathan Banks
Over the last few months HMRC boss Dave Hartnett has got it in the neck for giving some big businesses (such as Vodafone and Goldman Sachs) some amazingly generous tax deals, losing The Revenue an estimated 25 billion in, errum, revenue. Why give these big companies such generous tax breaks?
There is video of him being questioned in the Treasury Select Committee late last year about this and he looks extremely uncomfortable. Some sources have suggested he bent over backwards for a few free meals and a case of Châteaux de Châteaux. Well – if that was the case – that was corporate hospitality well spent, it’s tax deductible you know!
But to bring us up to date, he’s just given The Telegraph an intervew pointing the finger at ‘the man in the street’ who pays for services such as building and plumbing (a HMRC bête noire) with cash. He said, “Tax provides the funding to run the country: hospitals, schools and everything else. Every time someone pays cash in order not to pay VAT, the nation gets diddled.”
My old flatmate used to say, when you point your finger at somebody else you are pointing three at yourself.
If you haven’t filed your self assessment tax return yet, don’t forget that the deadline is 31 January 2012. Your return will need to be filed online as the deadline for paper returns has already passed. If you haven’t already registered for online filing this should be done as soon as possible as it does take some time for HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to issue the information that you will need to necessary access the system.
Returns filed late will receive an automatic penalty of £100. In earlier years this penalty could be reduced if your tax liability was nil or was paid by the 31st January deadline but this is no longer possible. In addition, if a return is more than 3 months late, a £10 per day penalty can also be imposed.
The Week says, “A committee of MPs has criticised “unduly cosy” deals between HM Revenue & Customs and large firms over £25bn worth of unpaid tax. The Public Accounts Committee expressed “serious concerns” that while small firms are aggressively chased for tax, HMRC appears to have taken a gentler line with large corporations.”
Hey, we’ve all known this for some time: companies like Vodaphone pay for some very expensive representation and get off without paying much tax while high street hairdressers are made bankrupt for owning few quid – a process that costs the taxpayer more than will ever be recovered.
What can you say? It’s all very cosy at the top.
