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If only the person in charge had a grasp in reality...
it is a shame that the revenue don't employee a few people who have run business (maybe they do but there is no sign of this impacting on the way they go about these things). They then just might start coming out with solutions that work.
the sad reality is that they are like indiviudals who have never driven before deciding on the speed limits for certain roads with no real appreciation for how road quality, conditions, lighting, etc will affect a 'safe' speed limit.
What about the accountant?
Surely HMRC are failing to recognise the input made by accountants in correcting deficiencies in client records?
it's a joke
Strictly in my view the "weekly accounting and in-year accuracy" mularky is a joke. I have worked in senior finance roles for three different large companies each with sales in excess of £1 billion per year, one quoted on the LSE and one at the time on the Paris Bourse.
Most of the time NONE of those companies were in full compliance with the totality of the small business record checks, this included within my areas of the businesses alone at different times:
1. £500k to £1m stock imbalances individually at three separate sites which took 6 months and two separate non year-end stock counts to sort out.
2. Two separate historic financial disagreements with separate customers, each one of which being over £500k and each taking at least three months to reconcile and agree because the imbalances were spread over 5 years and two accounting systems.
3. Wholesale imbalances due to botched SAP implementation within customer and supplier records which persisted for 4 months and were complained about by suppliers who were being slow paid at Ministerial level, the Group FD then required weekly reconciliations and reports on all of this across 2 different division which had the problem.
4. An otherwise very good SAP implementation which resulted in huge projects being settled to capital which were revenue projects, and vice-versa. This led to a difference between P&L and Balance Sheet of over £80m which then took over 6 months to fix entirely.
5. Numerous other issues of a lesser magnitude but still running into the circa. £500k range, still taking 3 to 6 months to sort out. Where these originated close to year-end they were flagged up to auditors, 80%-plus of the time the "hard yards" were put in to sort them out before the auditors showed up or even during the audit itself.
If massive organistions with hundreds of qualified finance staff cannot meet these tests, why should small businesses? Can I suggest to HMRC that instead of starting with the little guys they kick off with Vodafone and Goldman Sachs?
I'll find out shortly
I have just received a letter stating that they want to carry out a BRC on me!
Are there any criteria for determining who gets a visit and any limits to what they should be allowed to see? Do I have to allow access to Sage or can I just given them hard copies?