How’s your summer going?
What with scorchio weather, school holidays and the World Cup, we’ve gone from ‘It’s too hot’, ‘I’m bored’ and ‘It’s coming home’ to everyone’s gone home.
And all because it’s the time of year when there’s not a lot of work going on. BBQs and sunburn, yes. Conscientious levels of industry, no.
Unless, of course, you’re HMRC and its Advanced Payment Notice (APN) Department. They’ve been busy…
In fact, so busy, it’s resulted in a not-so-great summer for one unlucky person.
Any ideas? Go on, close your eyes, and think hard now…
That’s right. Following on nicely from the previous blog on our Tax Investigation Protection service, we’re talking about Psychic Sally, a popular clairvoyant and director of Sally Morgan Enterprises whose psychic services company recently went into voluntary liquidation following a £2.9m tax bill and unexpected APN from HMRC.
We’re not sure how Mystic Meg, Septic Peg and all the other oracles would have fared but, clearly, Psychic Sally didn’t see this one coming. It certainly puts a whole new spin on a person from her profession crossing someone’s hand in silver. In this case, HMRC’s. Wanting rather a lot of it.
Even though the amount of the tax bill has been disputed, the issue of an APN means that the taxpayer has only 90 days to act – without a formal right of appeal or the ability to defer the payment (and any other payments that had been postponed up to that point). Effectively, it results in Hobson’s choice: either settle by producing the amounts owed or go into voluntary liquidation as in the case here.
APNS: The good, the bad and the ugly
Since they were first introduced in the Finance Act in August 2014, around 80,000 APNs have been issued. Last year alone, HMRC reported that more than £4bn had been collected through them, with the average bill for large companies trying to avoid tax around £6m.
And, whilst representations can be made to HMRC, convincing them that the amounts or even the demands themselves are a mistake can prove extremely difficult – despite recent official figures revealing that as many as 6,000 of those notices were withdrawn after having been wrongly issued. It’s no wonder APNs are deemed so controversial.
With regard to Sally Morgan Enterprises, without the available funds to pay its debts, it’s not looking good; especially with HMRC upholding around 90% of its APN decisions. As one wag commented: “Psychic Sally might find it easier to commune with the dead than disputing her APN.”
So, there you have it, the latest news from the CW vault and why it always pays to be on top of your taxes.
Which reminds us; we need to rebook the entertainment for our works summer BBQ. Now, would you believe it – we also had a clairvoyant lined up. Unfortunately, the rather diminutive Seymour Footure has gone AWOL due to unforeseen circumstances.
The local papers really went to town with that headline: ‘On the run: Small medium at large.’
Oh dear, that’s about the size of it. Let’s hope his crystal balls aren’t hampering him too much.
Until next month...
