Worked for Inland Revenue for 11 years in the 70s and 80s before I saw the light!
Progressed from working for medium sized firms of accountants to starting my own practice in 1996 and havent looked back since, with hubby joining me in partnership 7 years later.
I am not sure a small increase in earnings is a "change in circumstances" in the taxpayers mind!
He owes £340 for two years but I am pleased to say that HMRC have now accepted the figures and said they won't charge penalties!
Now I just need to find out if they will deal with 2018/2019 informally, rather that have the hassle of going back in to SA for one year only, as the child benefit stopped last year.
I've just had a former client come back to me on this very subject. He used to be within SA and Child Benefit was declared the first year then he fell below £50k the second year, so did not need to disclose it. HMRC then decided he no longer needed to complete returns (hence we were no longer needed). Unfortunately his earnings went (just) over £50k again and of course HMRC have just woken up to the fact.
Client is upset because it was HMRC who said he no longer needed to file SA returns and wants me to ask for no penalties.
I thought most high wealth individuals were now dealt with by a special unit, presumably to maintain confidentiality? I have certainly dealt with a couple in this situation. PD1 of course deal with armed forces etc and cannot be contacted on the general helplines or by post other than direct to them.
I am ex-Revenue and started my exams before ATT and CIOT became separate organisations. I did not go ahead with the final exams but having passed the first stages I was granted membership of ATT when it was formed.
I have had my own tax practice for 23 years and have never found the lack of full qualification to be a barrier to having a full and satisfying client base. Admittedly I don't deal with large corporations or get involved with sophisticated schemes but it is possible to keep up to date with tax developments and do more than just routine compliance without being a CTA member.
You definitely do need to have a PAYE scheme and to file RTI returns to get the pension credits. The previous accountant clearly didn't understand that (or was just lazy). I use Moneysoft and it is quick, inexpensive and easy to use. It takes me maybe half an hour to prepare payslips and send reports for half a dozen payrolls (and no, I don't work for them).
Had the same problem some years ago with a charity refusing to pay VAT on advertising services provided by a small film company. Charities seem to think they are exempt from all VAT.
Didn't get a receipt as such from my software. Just a note on screen saying the return had been accepted. We have no idea if the direct debit has been transferred over as there seems to be no way of checking and the client has not received an email, though I understand that she should which is why they asked for an email address.
I know the return has gone through but why can't they send a receipt now?!
Am I wrong to think that if the lease term is under 50 years it is normally a P&L expense, with different rules if it is over that? I am thinking of the CGT rules for the lessor, who would treat the rent as income.
I too was seriously reluctant to get involved and last year passed on most of our business clients to a former colleague who has his own practice (we are preparing for retirement in a couple of years) but was still left with a couple that I really didn't like to pass on.
We had been using VT for accounts production and it is inexpensive and easy to use. They finally announced in March or April that they were going to add MTD to their package and having set up the ASA some time ago it was actually very easy to register the clients for MTD and to link them through the software - much easier than I expected. There is no fuss with having to use linking software, we simply entered the data and filed the return when it was ready. The bonus is that VT is actually easy enough for a relatively inexperienced client to use (a hairdresser in fact), so she makes the primary entries, we transfer the data to our program to check them and amend as necessary (no cloud accounting involved) and transfer the data file back to her when we are finished.
There used to be something called "equitable liability", where if HMRC were (validly) pursuing a totally unreasonable debt you could ask for it to be cancelled. It was never widely publicised but you can still find articles about it online (I just did!).
My answers
I am not sure a small increase in earnings is a "change in circumstances" in the taxpayers mind!
He owes £340 for two years but I am pleased to say that HMRC have now accepted the figures and said they won't charge penalties!
Now I just need to find out if they will deal with 2018/2019 informally, rather that have the hassle of going back in to SA for one year only, as the child benefit stopped last year.
I've just had a former client come back to me on this very subject. He used to be within SA and Child Benefit was declared the first year then he fell below £50k the second year, so did not need to disclose it. HMRC then decided he no longer needed to complete returns (hence we were no longer needed). Unfortunately his earnings went (just) over £50k again and of course HMRC have just woken up to the fact.
Client is upset because it was HMRC who said he no longer needed to file SA returns and wants me to ask for no penalties.
I thought most high wealth individuals were now dealt with by a special unit, presumably to maintain confidentiality? I have certainly dealt with a couple in this situation. PD1 of course deal with armed forces etc and cannot be contacted on the general helplines or by post other than direct to them.
I am ex-Revenue and started my exams before ATT and CIOT became separate organisations. I did not go ahead with the final exams but having passed the first stages I was granted membership of ATT when it was formed.
I have had my own tax practice for 23 years and have never found the lack of full qualification to be a barrier to having a full and satisfying client base. Admittedly I don't deal with large corporations or get involved with sophisticated schemes but it is possible to keep up to date with tax developments and do more than just routine compliance without being a CTA member.
You definitely do need to have a PAYE scheme and to file RTI returns to get the pension credits. The previous accountant clearly didn't understand that (or was just lazy). I use Moneysoft and it is quick, inexpensive and easy to use. It takes me maybe half an hour to prepare payslips and send reports for half a dozen payrolls (and no, I don't work for them).
Had the same problem some years ago with a charity refusing to pay VAT on advertising services provided by a small film company. Charities seem to think they are exempt from all VAT.
Didn't get a receipt as such from my software. Just a note on screen saying the return had been accepted. We have no idea if the direct debit has been transferred over as there seems to be no way of checking and the client has not received an email, though I understand that she should which is why they asked for an email address.
I know the return has gone through but why can't they send a receipt now?!
Am I wrong to think that if the lease term is under 50 years it is normally a P&L expense, with different rules if it is over that? I am thinking of the CGT rules for the lessor, who would treat the rent as income.
I too was seriously reluctant to get involved and last year passed on most of our business clients to a former colleague who has his own practice (we are preparing for retirement in a couple of years) but was still left with a couple that I really didn't like to pass on.
We had been using VT for accounts production and it is inexpensive and easy to use. They finally announced in March or April that they were going to add MTD to their package and having set up the ASA some time ago it was actually very easy to register the clients for MTD and to link them through the software - much easier than I expected. There is no fuss with having to use linking software, we simply entered the data and filed the return when it was ready. The bonus is that VT is actually easy enough for a relatively inexperienced client to use (a hairdresser in fact), so she makes the primary entries, we transfer the data to our program to check them and amend as necessary (no cloud accounting involved) and transfer the data file back to her when we are finished.
There used to be something called "equitable liability", where if HMRC were (validly) pursuing a totally unreasonable debt you could ask for it to be cancelled. It was never widely publicised but you can still find articles about it online (I just did!).