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Lunn
Presumably this matter is no longer sub judice. As someone who has seen the rubbish prepared by this firm and submitted to HMRC I'm delighted that HMRC stuck with this case after the original jury couldn't reach a decision.
The problem seems to have been the law that says a person can't be found guilty if they were unaware that they were breaking the law i.e. alleged incompetence is a protection against a fraud accusation. For someone in Lunn's position (a practice with several thousand clients) and a former member of the Institute the latest jury obviously didn't buy this.
Sentence
Got to show a strong response against fraud - 200 hours community service, your Honour, will teach him a lesson!
Lunn ex-clients
We inherited 3 Lunn clients and I must admit after cleaning up 6 years of the fraudulent mess they created, I was amazed at the scale of the cosmetic accounting they used. It cost these clients the best part of £20,000 to settle everything. However they were smart enough to take our advice to settle and so the penalties were minimal, despite Lunn still emailing them to assure that everything was in good order and not to settle.
Question - does anyone know if there is a chance of claiming against Lunn PI? I am not sure whether PI covers Lunn's fraudulent accounting. Anyone have success on this.
PI cover
My client who was with Lunn is in contact with other ex-clients of his, and I understand that an approach has been made to a solicitor regarding this, my client 's understanding is that a case could be brought but due to the costs they are looking to get some more ex clients interested in order to spread the legal costs. If anyone is interested in taking this further please let me know and I will contact my client to get all interested parties talking. my email is [email protected]
So he'll
do a bit of bird, come out and carry on as if nothing has happened. He will probably be doing it inside.
So why? Could it be because we have such an oppressive tax system in this country that tax payers are quite happy to fight back (that's not to say they are right, just an observation). The fact that some were waiting for the "outcome" of the court case says a lot of his clients were happy to take the chance.
Lunn
A disgrace to the profession. We dealt with a couple of Lunn cases - I remember about 4 or 5 years ago asking a client of his to bring in their records from the previous year so I could compare them to the accounts submitted by said "accountant" of word beginning in "f". There was no resemblance between the two! Not sure HMRC come through with flying colours (although they got there in the end) - I remember one email where they cc'd all the Lunn clients' new accountants rather than bcc so we all had a very helpful email list!!
Sorry mate not the time or the article to preach to others
I do hope that you didnt use this list its priveliged information
The whole article is a shame on the Accounting profession, lets not preach to the good Accountants, concentrate on identifying and hounding out the crap Accountants. If your comment was a brilliant sarcastic joke please forgive me.
Among his string of dubious practices you can add not registering a client with a £200k turnover for VAT and then distributing partnership profits in different percentages each year to minimise tax - even though it was set up on a 50:50 basis...
@alfamale
You can distribute partnership profits however the partners like. This is normally changed to reflect the work that is done during the year. I'm sure sometimes it's done to reflect a tax saving. This is what happens when an Accountant starts being dodgy. Sometimes true circumstances get lost and we have to deal with it.
dodgy
I took over a practice from an accountant who was closed down by the revenue. He put all his clients files in a skip, so I got nothing. He used to take in clients books then guess the profit he expected , conjure up expenses finally arriving at turnover. He then charged them in full. He was a PR genus luckily he was not qualified.
Plenty cowboys out there
Got a case came to me this year already on Enquiry. Previous accountant made up Turnover (just under VAT limit) and expenses to come up with a profit just over the personal allowance. Must have taken him 10 minutes start to finish. Banked turnover (simple case of adding it up) was over double declared turnover and well over VAT limit. Client not VAT registered of course.
HMRC need to get serious to route out these cowboys.
"We don't do double entry".
I rang Christopher Lunn as the client data they sent over for a new client only showed part of the picture.I said I needed something that reflected the double entry and the lady told me "We don't do double entry".
Unenviable CVs
I wonder what Lunn's staff are doing now? Some of them, presumably, will have been largely 'trained' just at that firm. I don't evny anyone with the name of Christopher Lunn & Co. on their CV ... or the practice who takes them on.
Lets be kind on the staff
I wonder what Lunn's staff are doing now? Some of them, presumably, will have been largely 'trained' just at that firm. I don't evny anyone with the name of Christopher Lunn & Co. on their CV ... or the practice who takes them on.
Lets face it, most of us have worked for a 'Lunn' style organisation at some point in our Accounting career, its amazing what they can get away with.
Good news for the HMRC, but before you pat yourself on the back maybe you should take another look at the 1000+ super rich tax dodgers that have over 70 billion in hsbc's swiss accounts since nothing has been done in the last 5 years since it had surfaced.
only one person has been convicted??
Problem being thats alot of bartering power.
Its ridiculous how we're fed this crap about lower class benefit cheats,chased for a few measly quid ,surving below living standards yet a blind eye is shown to filthy rich tax evaders that owe millions in tax liability , living the high life.
Inequality and Bribery
Problem being thats alot of bartering power.
Did you mean bribing power? That is why massive inequality always brings massive corruption; simply because it gives the super rich enormous funds with which to bribe.
Good point but its not ridiculous. Authorities always go for the easy pickings, take parking over theives. These international tax doggers have the cards all in their favour and will continue so. Tax Justice etc rant and rave, quite rightly, but wont get far. The only solution is the imposition of a much higher and fairer VAT system so we tax their spend.
How about a tax on land and buildings?
The only solution is the imposition of a much higher and fairer VAT system so we tax their spend.
How about a tax on land and buildings?
This says more about....
This says more about HMRC than Lynn, they should have identified a pattern of Accounting nonsense years ago.
Just how sloppy are HMRC, if they were a football team they would be Kidderminster Town
Played 23 won 2 lost 8 lost 13 ...yep sounds about right. Maybe HMRc need some new powers, but are they capable of using them correctly or at all.