BN66 - Time to fight back (Chapter 3)

[Toocan]

The latest botched (mal?)administration concerns taxing foreign dividends - HMRC have been getting this wrong since 1973. As a result they will now be due their victim £1.2 billion.

Sorry everyone, I massively underestimated how much HMRC will have to pay back from this.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle5248426.ece

[deckster]

Sorry everyone, I massively underestimated how much HMRC will have to pay back from this.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle5248426.ece

Nice quote from that article...

Yesterday’s decision is the latest in a series of tax rulings to have gone against the Government in the past two years. In several of these, judges have ruled that the Government failed to take sufficient notice of European law when devising UK tax laws.

Too bloody right.

[DonkeyRhubarb]

Human Rights Confusion

I thought this was quite interesting. You wouldn't have thought the HOL would get something like this so totally wrong.

They applied to the European court after their case was turned down by the House of Lords, which ruled that keeping the information did not breach human rights.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/dec/04/law-genetics

It just goes to show how meaningless it is when Treasury/HMRC claim that Section 58 does not infringe our rights.

The Government & HMRC seem to lose a lot of Human Rights challenges, which makes you wonder whether they really understand the Act. Either that or they are so arrogant that they think they can just disregard it.


PS. the Government cuts and pastes this identical text into every Finance Bill but I wonder how much effort goes into verifying this?

EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer has made the following statement under section 19(1)(a) of the Human Rights Act 1998:
In my view the provisions of the Finance Bill are compatible with the Convention rights.

[SantaClaus]

The Government & HMRC seem to lose a lot of Human Rights challenges, which makes you wonder whether they really understand the Act. Either that or they are so arrogant that they think they can just disregard it.

You're right. They have been in power for so long, they are just plain arrogant.

How else do you describe a group of people who have completely changed and continue to misuse the word "fairness".

Maybe we could devise a list of failed HMRC cases. I like this one:

"In the most recent of these Rank, the owner of Mecca Bingo, won a £36.3 million refund from HMRC after appealing against taxes levied on slot machines played by punters during intervals between bingo games."

[MrRaincheck]

I sent my appeal for my CN almost 3 weeks ago now (well MP did on my behalf). I called MP up yesterday - but nothing back from the IR as yet. Wonder how long it takes to acknowledge it. Just want to make sure its happens and they have received it as the 28 days is pretty close now. Anyone else had to wait this long?

[deckster]

I sent my appeal for my CN almost 3 weeks ago now (well MP did on my behalf). I called MP up yesterday - but nothing back from the IR as yet. Wonder how long it takes to acknowledge it. Just want to make sure its happens and they have received it as the 28 days is pretty close now. Anyone else had to wait this long?

Yes, HMRC take forever to acknowledge anything. My latest statement from them only shows one (of six) years to be suspended despite all of them having been appealed well over a month ago.

The best thing to do is to register on the government gateway site - you can then check online for the actual situation.

[smalldog]

I only found out about my suspension by logging into the gateway, funnily enough HMRC dont seem that proactive in communicating or acknowledging appeals have been lodged, sour grapes it seems!

[KiwiGuy]

I only found out about my suspension by logging into the gateway, funnily enough HMRC dont seem that proactive in communicating or acknowledging appeals have been lodged, sour grapes it seems!

no its because the guy who writes the letters no longer has a job

[Toocan]

The Government & HMRC seem to lose a lot of Human Rights challenges, which makes you wonder whether they really understand the Act. Either that or they are so arrogant that they think they can just disregard it.

HMRC certainly don't understand the Montpelier scheme.

[ILurkedTooLong]

a quick friday afternoon de-lurk

Hello, I've been lurking here for ages, so figured it was about time to delurk and say hello..!

Thanks to all of you who've been posting here the last few months, it has been incredibly interesting/useful. Never did I think back in 2001 that seven years later I'd be reading about the magical time travelling abilities of the (then) "Inland Revenue". I find HRMC incredibly inspirational and intend to use the "it was as if it was always that way" powers throughout my daily-life...

Have an extra-marital affair? You can get away with it merely by wiggling your fingers like an amateur magician and saying "it was as if it had never happened." Forget a birthday? Get a speeding ticket? you can now fix all of life's problems with a bit of timetravellyrestospectivity! Being charged interest on your tax bill? Just pay it retrospectively! (How can interest be charged if you pay "as if it had always been paid"?)

Furthermore why not extend the idea and time-travel fowards too? If, heaven forbid, the JR is lost, and we all must pay up, then just pay it in the future, retrospectively. "Dear HRMC; Thank you for your recent demand. Please be reminded that I had already paid this amount, in the year 2132, with restrospective effect. Yours sincerely, blahblahblah"

take it easy folks + happy weekend....

ILurkedTooLong