Enquiries and Investigations by HM Revenue & Customs:
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has the right to enquire into any Tax Return submitted to them. An enquiry regarding a specific aspect on the Tax Return may be quickly resolved; however, a more detailed examination – what the taxman terms a ‘full enquiry’ – is likely to be a more protracted and searching matter.
Enquiries can be triggered in a number of ways:
- The HMRC department’s computerised risk analysis system
- Information that the taxman has received
- Selected entirely at random
Therefore, even if your Tax Return has been prepared by a qualified accountant, you are not guaranteed to be immune from enquiry. The taxman will be looking to see how you personally have kept your books and checking on your financial reliability.
If the taxman finds something wrong with your Tax Return, there may be extra tax, interest and penalties to pay. Even if your Tax Return is proved to be correct, you will have been put to the extra expense of dealing with this, through lost time at work and the additional fees paid to your accountant to resolve the enquiry. Only if the taxman can be shown to have acted unreasonably in prolonging the enquiry will a claim to compensation be considered by HMRC.
To protect yourself from the hassle and expense that can come from a full enquiry; make sure that you keep your tax certificates for any employment, pension and investment income. If you are in business, make sure that you have a good bookkeeping system and that this is regularly maintained.
If you want extra peace of mind, consider taking out insurance for the cost of additional professional fees to cover tax enquiries.
Enjoy peace of mind with Pilbro
If you are self employed, or your tax affairs are complicated, you should consider engaging a qualified accountant or Tax Adviser. He will help you shoulder this burden and his advice may well save you paying more taxes than you need.
Pilbro has a dedicated tax team of ex-HMRC tax inspectors, who have years of experience of dealing with Revenue investigations. They are experts in the field of HMRC enquiries and are able to represent and defend you in these matters.
In addition, Pilbro offers a tax investigation support service for accountants, solicitors and other professionals. This service is intended to support the advisor's relationship with the client, rather than being in conflict with it.
Our team of tax investigation specialists is always available for an initial consultation, either by phone or personal meeting, on a no-obligation basis.
Please call Pilbro on 01280 820 654 to arrange a consultation with a tax specialist. |
