BN66 - Time to fight back (Chapter 3)

[DonkeyRhubarb]

I have this morning had a response to the follow up letter that I sent to my MP yesterday (via the 'WriteToThem' website).

It says....

"Thank you for your further message to Michael Mates. Mr. Mates is now bringing your concerns to the attention of the Minister as you have asked. He will be in touch again as soon as he has a response."

That's more like it.

[macdat]

That's more like it.

We'll see what comes back, they didnt give any indication of timescales though.

I have though, in the odd occaision, seen the House Of Commons on TV when there has been an MP voicing concerns on an issue to a largely empty house with an audience of say half a dozen other MP's. I couldn't help thinking 'Whats the point if there are so few people there!??!?'

[seadog]

We'll see what comes back, they didnt give any indication of timescales though.

I have though, in the odd occaision, seen the House Of Commons on TV when there has been an MP voicing concerns on an issue to a largely empty house with an audience of say half a dozen other MP's. I couldn't help thinking 'Whats the point if there are so few people there!??!?'

That why we need to have an achievable objective when we lobby our MP's

[NO TO RETRO]

Response from MP

That why we need to have an achievable objective when we lobby our MP's

Just to share responses - had 1 back to the 1st letter from my MP (Ben Chapman), simply saying he's written to the Finance Secretary (Stephen Timms) and will be in touch again when he receives a response from him.

[Arghhhh!]

Since I got my CN i have had numerous letters from the IR

Hi,
I am new to the site , just wanted to say that I got my CN towards the end of 2008 , since then I have had letters from the IR practically every Friday or Saturday . They sure know how to spoil ones weekend.
Since I spoke to my scheme operators they have managed to get these letters stopped, well at least until the JR is heard in court .

I hope I will be glad of the outcome once its ALL heard and over , otherwise i could be facing huge losses and debts to pay what the IR think i owe .

R.

[smalldog]

I wrote to my MP way back. They wrote to Alistair Darling and the response I got was "Tough". Im hoping we can get a bit more traction this time if enough people do the same..

[TheGaffer]

Just to share responses - had 1 back to the 1st letter from my MP (Ben Chapman), simply saying he's written to the Finance Secretary (Stephen Timms) and will be in touch again when he receives a response from him.

Your MP will most likely forward you the standard response from Timms (which has been published on this thread in full a few times) and basically says "we are the government, we can do what we like so tough - if you are having problems meeting your tax obligations you were provided with two phone numbers on the HMRC letters to call to discuss it with them" (his secretary couldn't even manage to spell my name correctly on the cut and paste response).

Timms and HMRC (who have all recently been on a "How to frighten and bully people out of money on the phone - new updated for BN66" course) are desperate for you to ring those numbers, because they know they will be able to scare a few people into stumping up.

I'm not sure if anything else can be achieved with your MP after receiving the standard response, unless anyone thinks otherwise?

[Emigre]

Hi,
I am new to the site , just wanted to say that I got my CN towards the end of 2008 , since then I have had letters from the IR practically every Friday or Saturday . They sure know how to spoil ones weekend.
Since I spoke to my scheme operators they have managed to get these letters stopped, well at least until the JR is heard in court .

I hope I will be glad of the outcome once its ALL heard and over , otherwise i could be facing huge losses and debts to pay what the IR think i owe .

R.

Hi and welcome to the site. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Which provider are you with, which tax years were you on the scheme, what CNs have you received?

Stick with this. We will win. Send a letter to your MP (ask DR for a draft).

[WhiteCat]

Me too

Just to share responses - had 1 back to the 1st letter from my MP (Ben Chapman), simply saying he's written to the Finance Secretary (Stephen Timms) and will be in touch again when he receives a response from him.

The same from my MP, Stephen Dorrell. Will request DR's follow-up letter so as to have some more info available once Stephen Timms' response comes back.

[DonkeyRhubarb]

Your MP will most likely forward you the standard response from Timms...

I'm not sure if anything else can be achieved with your MP after receiving the standard response, unless anyone thinks otherwise?

You are right to be sceptical. In most cases this is exactly what will happen.

But it is a numbers game. All it takes are one or two MPs to take a genuine interest. We know that some (eg. John Redwood) will be receiving multiple letters. They may not be so easily fobbed off with the standard response.

We need to guage what the response is like, and then see if we can find an MP who will table a question in the House.