Thank you gbuckell, apologies I hadn't seen a notification that I had any responses!
Thankfully, this is what I suggested to the client. The problem we have though is that if we strike off Co B, Co A will be subject to a degrouping charge. The client isn't keen on the idea of keeping Co B dormant, but I think this is the only option to allow a tax-free hive up with no degrouping charges.
Interesting. With regards to CG64950, would the couple have had to have been married at the point at which they were living in the property together for this to apply, or is the fact that they are married at the point of transfer enough to then obtain the PPR for the periods he was staying with the now wife?
My client said the field officer didn't seem interested in the arrangement he had in place to pay HMRC by DD.
Is it normal for an officer just to turn up out of the blue like this?
Unfortunately, HMRC's usual offices and their Debt Management departments aren't very well tied up and Debt Enforcers will often turn up without knowledge of a prior payment arrangement.
I have had officers turn up to my client's premises to enforce an assessment which is under appeal many times. They do not care that the Debt is not yet final, unless the HMRC Inspector themselves call the Debt Enforcer, they will not cease collection action. It is ludicrous at times.
As I said in OP, my job role has changed. Our advisory service was not overly proactive before due to capacity and other pressures. We didn't have the resources available to actively seek additional work and convert.
We have now managed to recruit and I am now able to step away from the day to day compliance demands of my previous role. I have been asked to take a step back, analyse our clients and present a strategic plan to increase tax revenues. My OP's intention was to start a discussion around this and see other opinions on where people would go with this given such autonomy/freedom in their own role. I happened to mention that I was going to look at pushing R&D more and this has now turned into the main talking point of the post.
It is not my intention to "put everyone right who has replied", just to defend my decision to offer an R&D service to my clients.
I am aware that there are a number of R&D specialists out there, but as our client's aren't currently using these, we have an opportunity to turn our focus and pursue the work ourselves.
The fact remains that it is a tax relief that the government is encouraging people to claim and therefore receives favorable treatment.
IHT is something that I do want to push more. I want to encourage clients to think about this much earlier rather than waiting until they are 60+ and then wanting to discuss it.
Tax advice itself isn't about marketing what is profitable, no. However, what you are talking about is a reactive service to issues coming up rather than a proactive, strategic plan. What I am being asked to do is come up with a strategic plan for growing tax revenue which will most like involve focusing on area that we have not yet fully explored.
I would do it on a fixed fee basis based on estimated hourly rates - I don't approve of the % model.
According to HMRC statistics, only 26,000 claims were made in 2015-16, which doesn't sound overly saturated to me.
As the government views investment in R&D to be key to economic success, they are encouraging more claims to be made. To me it appears to be a low risk area to focus on due to clients actively being encouraged to claim the relief by government/HMRC. This is ofcourse, so long as it isn't all based in BS.
If more than 6 months have passed since the date of the invoice and you have written off the debt as a bad debt in your accounts then you should be able to claim bad debt relief on your VAT return and recover the output VAT that you charged.
My answers
Thank you gbuckell, apologies I hadn't seen a notification that I had any responses!
Thankfully, this is what I suggested to the client. The problem we have though is that if we strike off Co B, Co A will be subject to a degrouping charge. The client isn't keen on the idea of keeping Co B dormant, but I think this is the only option to allow a tax-free hive up with no degrouping charges.
She hasn't actually carried out the service yet, so no, not tax evasion at all but simply asking how best to structure her affairs.
Interesting. With regards to CG64950, would the couple have had to have been married at the point at which they were living in the property together for this to apply, or is the fact that they are married at the point of transfer enough to then obtain the PPR for the periods he was staying with the now wife?
Unfortunately, HMRC's usual offices and their Debt Management departments aren't very well tied up and Debt Enforcers will often turn up without knowledge of a prior payment arrangement.
I have had officers turn up to my client's premises to enforce an assessment which is under appeal many times. They do not care that the Debt is not yet final, unless the HMRC Inspector themselves call the Debt Enforcer, they will not cease collection action. It is ludicrous at times.
That isn't what I am doing.
As I said in OP, my job role has changed. Our advisory service was not overly proactive before due to capacity and other pressures. We didn't have the resources available to actively seek additional work and convert.
We have now managed to recruit and I am now able to step away from the day to day compliance demands of my previous role. I have been asked to take a step back, analyse our clients and present a strategic plan to increase tax revenues. My OP's intention was to start a discussion around this and see other opinions on where people would go with this given such autonomy/freedom in their own role. I happened to mention that I was going to look at pushing R&D more and this has now turned into the main talking point of the post.
It is not my intention to "put everyone right who has replied", just to defend my decision to offer an R&D service to my clients.
The stats were published by HMRC in September 2017, so the most recent and readily available stats there currently is. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploa...
I am aware that there are a number of R&D specialists out there, but as our client's aren't currently using these, we have an opportunity to turn our focus and pursue the work ourselves.
The fact remains that it is a tax relief that the government is encouraging people to claim and therefore receives favorable treatment.
IHT is something that I do want to push more. I want to encourage clients to think about this much earlier rather than waiting until they are 60+ and then wanting to discuss it.
Tax advice itself isn't about marketing what is profitable, no. However, what you are talking about is a reactive service to issues coming up rather than a proactive, strategic plan. What I am being asked to do is come up with a strategic plan for growing tax revenue which will most like involve focusing on area that we have not yet fully explored.
I would do it on a fixed fee basis based on estimated hourly rates - I don't approve of the % model.
According to HMRC statistics, only 26,000 claims were made in 2015-16, which doesn't sound overly saturated to me.
As the government views investment in R&D to be key to economic success, they are encouraging more claims to be made. To me it appears to be a low risk area to focus on due to clients actively being encouraged to claim the relief by government/HMRC. This is ofcourse, so long as it isn't all based in BS.
If more than 6 months have passed since the date of the invoice and you have written off the debt as a bad debt in your accounts then you should be able to claim bad debt relief on your VAT return and recover the output VAT that you charged.