vat -legal action

vat -legal action

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A Client received a petition to wind up his company on 18th May 06. It had been issued on 24th April 06 but had gone to the company's old address. Although they owed a small amount of vat HMRC had a much higher figure. We did a full breakdown of vat details over the past few periods, wrote to them and asked if they would take the petition off the list. After 3 days we contacted them and they said they had not received any letter so we faxed (receipted) and sent copies recorded delivery, 2 days later they said they had not received any letters or faxes, again we faxed and emailed all receipted and this time they said they had got the details but it was too late now to do anything as they had notified the London Gazette, as a result the Bank account was frozen. they said they would not take action if we could provide a satisfied form 652 and then added that it would take 4 weeks to process. By this time our client had also contacted them several times and also asked why they had not had any prior warning of legal action, HMRC said they had no obligation to warn of legal action, by then we had contacted the solicitors acting for them. The client paid the tax that they owed but HMRC said that the only way they would dismiss the case was if the client paid the full amount By this time we were 3 days before the hearing. In desperation our client paid the balance by chaps2 days before the hearing, we then advised the solicitor acting for HMRC and they contacted their client who said they needed proof (chaps receipt) and then they would dismiss the case, our client faxed over a letter from the bank but HMRC said any bank employee could have written that and they would not accept it they wanted the Chaps receipt only. Our client then faxed the chaps receipt this was now the day before the hearing, the solicitor then told us that their client would not accept the form as anyone could have completed that, they said that they would be asking the court for a 7 day adjournment. Our client could not attend the court as they were 300 miles away and the director was unable to cancel other meetings, (the business provides him with no income he has a manager and continues with his own occupation) The day after the court hearing when speaking to HMRC (yesterday) They advised us that they had agreed to have the case dismissed but it must have been overlooked, we asked for a letter to be faxed in order that our client could see his bank. No letter arrived, today we spoke to HMRC who said that the lady we spoke to the previous day was wrong and that they had not received the balance of payment, we said the chaps form should be enough and they then insisted that our client produce a statement to show the money had left his account. I cannot think of any case whhich has been dealt with in such a heavy handed and incompetent way. Help would be appreciated.
Dave Harper

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