BN66 - Time to fight back (Chapter 3)

[BrilloPad]

Fiscal onus against department ?

I must admit I'll be very interested to see how the pre-opened "discovery assessments" pan out. I got done over by this some years ago and still reckon it was wrong. More fool me for capitulating though.

Harry Hindsight is always right.

When under the intense pressure that HMRC put us under its easy to make a mistake.

One of the benefits of these threads is resisting that pressure and making the right moves.

No doubt we can expect an HMRC newsletter addressing this point and how they can do what they want when they want.

[SantaClaus]

Hello One and All,

I've been lurking here for a couple of months now. First of all, thank-you to (nearly) everyone who has posted - it has in general been very informative.

I have come out of the shadows as I received my CN's last Friday. Interestingly among the CN's I have a tax bill for 2 years where my Tax Return should, in theory not have been re-opened.

In 2003 there was no enquiry made on my return, and in 2004 the enquiry was sent to my old address as nobody at the Revenue had bothered to update my records (I sent them a letter). I was told at the time by MP that this effectively meant that no enquiry was made.

Some of the threads recently stated that they can only open previous Tax Returns if an enquiry was made, but I am clearly not in this position and am wondering if anyone else has received a CN for a "closed" Tax Return. MP have said that they should not have done this, but we will wait and see the outcome.

Keep up the good work everyone, and hopefully we can all have a celebratory drink when we finally win.

MajorGowen...

Hi MajorGowen and welcome to the thread.

I too have received a CN for a closed tax return. Same response from MP.
Personally I think this gives me an extra level of defense against the revenue for that particular tax year.

[Lazylobster]

Does not Hector harp on about "Discovery" and this allows them to go back and challenge closed Tax returns ?

LL

[BrilloPad]

Does not Hector harp on about "Discovery" and this allows them to go back and challenge closed Tax returns ?

LL

Yes - but it was all declared. Hence they don't have a leg to stand on.

Good news for us though - more points to score.....

[Jean Grey]

Another cheery Christmas

Hi MajorGowen and welcome to the thread.

I too have received a CN for a closed tax return. Same response from MP.
Personally I think this gives me an extra level of defense against the revenue for that particular tax year.

I haven't YET received a CN but I have had all of my tax returns since joining MontP queried even the ones where I wasn't working in the UK or in the scheme those years so it seems to me that HMRC really don't check their facts. With this in mind I am hoping they will be laughed out of court or at the very least have to pay the tax payer back some of the money they are wasting on drawing out this process.

[DonkeyRhubarb]

I too have received a CN for a closed tax return.

It's bad enough that they are re-opening tax returns but what really takes the biscuit is that they don't even bother with the formalities of opening an enquiry and just proceed straight to the closure notice.

What's next? Skip the bothersome paperwork altogether, and just send in the Bailiffs?

Imagine if the b*stards ever got granted these powers:

http://money.uk.msn.com/tax/articles...mentid=6183028

[BrilloPad]

It's bad enough that they are re-opening tax returns but what really takes the biscuit is that they don't even bother with the formalities of opening an enquiry and just proceed straight to the closure notice.

What's next? Skip the bothersome paperwork altogether, and just send in the Bailiffs?

Imagine if the b******s ever got granted these powers:

http://money.uk.msn.com/tax/articles...mentid=6183028

What got me about the attitude of my ex and the work colleagues I met was the presumption of guilt. Its guilty until proven innocent.

Its this attitude that got me into montp in the first place. I think most people here dont mind paying tax, contributing to society etcetc. But the attitude is incredible.....

[SantaClaus]

What got me about the attitude of my ex and the work colleagues I met was the presumption of guilt. Its guilty until proven innocent.

Its this attitude that got me into montp in the first place. I think most people here dont mind paying tax, contributing to society etcetc. But the attitude is incredible.....

I think most people dont know how much of their tax is squandered by the public sector. If they did, they would look for tax avoidance schemes too.

Take today for instance. The highly paid consultants at the NHS trust where my wife works are all being taken out for a slap up meal at the Oxo Tower. All at the taxpayer's expense of course.

These public sector organisations have a duty to spend all the money they are given even if they waste it, so that next year's money is not reduced.

[SantaClaus]

It's bad enough that they are re-opening tax returns but what really takes the biscuit is that they don't even bother with the formalities of opening an enquiry and just proceed straight to the closure notice.

What's next? Skip the bothersome paperwork altogether, and just send in the Bailiffs?

Imagine if the b*stards ever got granted these powers:

http://money.uk.msn.com/tax/articles...mentid=6183028

Read the article. Very scary!

Posted this in reply, wrote it it layman's terms so people understand:

HMRC have recently started to introduce tax legislation that is retrospective. What this means is that they change a tax law and apply it back to whatever year they feel like.

This recently happened with a measure called BN66. HMRC wanted to clamp down on a tax avoidance loophole in the Isle Of Man, so they rewrote an existing law. But instead of applying that new law from the date it was changed, they went all the way back to 2001. This actually contravenes the Human Rights Act and the affected parties are taking this to Judicial Review in the High Court.

Now, imagine changing a speed limit from 30 mph to 20 mph, effective from 2001 and then receiving fines for every year since 2001. You get the general idea! This is what they are doing.

Couple that with unhindered access to your bank account so that HMRC can help themselves whenever they move the goalposts and this is a very dangerous precedent to follow.

Hey HMRC, I know you're reading this , there are a hell of a lot of unhappy people on MSN Money. Hopefully they will vote your general, Gordon Brown, out in the next election.

[DonkeyRhubarb]

Hmrc Is Sh*te . Com

Some good stuff on here.

www.hmrconline.com