BN66 - Time to fight back (Chapter 3)

[SantaClaus]

Thanks GadgetMan for your support.

Helen7, firstly I am convinced you are an Inland Revenue plant.

Secondly, this issue about being "flagged" verges on paranoia. You are "flagged" anyway for being on the Montpelier scheme. Nothing you say or do is going to make things any worse.

Still I will humour you and continue.

If you were unfairly treated as a result, then you can take this a lot further and have some fun, even going as far as the Independent Police Complaints Commission. Now I'm sure they dont want 2000 people doing that!

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/factsheets/co...-factsheet.pdf

Excerpt 1:

How we handle your complaint

....... blah blah blah

We will
• treat you no differently because you have complained
• treat you fairly and with respect.

Excerpt 2:

Complaints about serious misconduct by HM Revenue & Customs staff
Allegations of very serious misconduct by our staff, such as assault or
corruption, are dealt with by the Independent Police Complaints Commission
(IPCC). The IPCC only has authority for incidents occurring in England and
Wales. If the incident occurred in Scotland or Northern Ireland, ask
any Complaints Manager for further information.

[helen7]

Helen7, firstly I am convinced you are an Inland Revenue plant.
.

Yes, and George Bush organized 911.

Although, it would be good being a contractor for HMRC...I'd be getting double rate overtime working this late.

[SantaClaus]

Tax avoidance is fine says Alistair Darling

Good news folks! I just found out that tax avoidance is fine. Here it is, straight from the horses mouth! :

http://waugh.standard.co.uk/2009/04/...s-50p-tax.html

Now Darling encourages the rich to avoid his 50p tax
Well, day by day, the Budget appears to unravel.

Now Alistair Darling has just suggested that it is perfectly OK, nay possibly a personal duty, for the rich to avoid his 50p supertax.

In evidence to the Treasury Select Committee, the Chancellor had to admit (see this blog yesterday) that the Treasury was only expecting to collect 31 per cent of the supertax owed. "Behavioural effects", such as getting your accountant to work round the rules by shifting dosh from salary to investment, had to be anticipated.

Speaking like an accountant himself, Darling didn't use the phrase tax avoidance but instead preferred that great euphemism "tax planning".

"We have to take account of the fact that people will be tax planning," he said. "It's sensible to budget for a slightly lower yield" [Slightly lower? By any reckoning losting 69 per cent of your expected revenue ie £5 billion in the next few years, is not 'slightly' anything].

But then Labour MP Andy Love asked whether all this talk about expecting the rich to avoid the tax would actually undermine the whole logic of a supertax.

Treating Love as if he were a fifth former struggling with his economics homework, Darling said:

"Tax planning has been with us since presumably the beginning of the 19th century and the Napoleonic wars.

"It's perfectly legitimate for people to tax plan. Their only obligation is to render unto Caesar what is due to Caesar."

Except that it seems that the Bible needs a New Labour re-write. The new obligation is to "render unto Caesar 31 per cent of what is due to Caesar".

PS Darling tried to suggest that their was no vindictiveness about his supertax and that "it's quite simply because at times like these we do n eed to make sure we can raise revenue". But that very point appears to be undermined by the low collection rate implicit in his 50p rate.

[TheGadgetMan]

A Little Light Relief....

I make no apologies for the following...its a little light relief for Friday...and its a Bank Holiday weekend...and it somehow seems so VERY appropriate....

Five surgeons are discussing who has the best patients to operate on.

The first surgeon says, 'I like to see accountants on my operating
table because when you open them up, everything inside is numbered.'

The second responds, 'Yeah, but you should try electricians!
Everything inside them is colour-coded.'

The third surgeon says, 'No, I really think librarians are the best;
everything inside them is in alphabetical order.'

The fourth surgeon chimes in, 'You know I like construction workers.
Those guys always understand when you have a few parts left over at
the end, and when the job takes longer than you said it would.'

But the fifth surgeon shut them all up when he observed, 'You're all
wrong. Politicians are the easiest to operate on. There's no guts, no
heart, no balls, no brains, and no spine, and there are only two
moving parts - the mouth and the a**ehole - and they are
interchangeable'.

[KiwiGuy]

HMRC may try to play silly buggers with these requests and interpret them in a way which suits them ie. least amount of effort.

Please share your experience, good or bad, so we can refine the wording of the requests to defeat the bureaucrats.

ive submitted my DPA

[seadog]

Good news folks! I just found out that tax avoidance is fine. Here it is, straight from the horses mouth! :

http://waugh.standard.co.uk/2009/04/...s-50p-tax.html

Now Darling encourages the rich to avoid his 50p tax
Well, day by day, the Budget appears to unravel.

Now Alistair Darling has just suggested that it is perfectly OK, nay possibly a personal duty, for the rich to avoid his 50p supertax.

In evidence to the Treasury Select Committee, the Chancellor had to admit (see this blog yesterday) that the Treasury was only expecting to collect 31 per cent of the supertax owed. "Behavioural effects", such as getting your accountant to work round the rules by shifting dosh from salary to investment, had to be anticipated.

Speaking like an accountant himself, Darling didn't use the phrase tax avoidance but instead preferred that great euphemism "tax planning".

"We have to take account of the fact that people will be tax planning," he said. "It's sensible to budget for a slightly lower yield" [Slightly lower? By any reckoning losting 69 per cent of your expected revenue ie £5 billion in the next few years, is not 'slightly' anything].

But then Labour MP Andy Love asked whether all this talk about expecting the rich to avoid the tax would actually undermine the whole logic of a supertax.

Treating Love as if he were a fifth former struggling with his economics homework, Darling said:

"Tax planning has been with us since presumably the beginning of the 19th century and the Napoleonic wars.

"It's perfectly legitimate for people to tax plan. Their only obligation is to render unto Caesar what is due to Caesar."

Except that it seems that the Bible needs a New Labour re-write. The new obligation is to "render unto Caesar 31 per cent of what is due to Caesar".

PS Darling tried to suggest that their was no vindictiveness about his supertax and that "it's quite simply because at times like these we do n eed to make sure we can raise revenue". But that very point appears to be undermined by the low collection rate implicit in his 50p rate.

Perhaps we should copy this article to Mr Brannigan and Mr Hartnett at HMRC, just to remind them that tax planning is our "obligation"

[johnnyguitar]

FOI requests

re: SantaClaus:
"
Helen7, firstly I am convinced you are an Inland Revenue plant.
"

I think you could be bit harsh here.
To some degree, I agree with Helen7. I'm not too paranoid about them 'flagging' my case but surely all the requests are just going to tie up an administrator and what does it acheive apart from winding them up ?

Unless you feel there is a possibility of HMRC really holding some information on you other that the tax re-calculations, I don't see the point. Have I missed something here ?

It could just get us known as a bunch of busy-bodies, lets keep professional -challenge the retrospection - that's what I'm here for.

[lucozade]

*** HEADS UP PLEASE ***

I've just submitted my DPA Request...thanks SantaClaus, great work there...

I know its early days and SantaClaus has only just put up his DPA thread a couple of days ago...but I was hoping that by now a few more people would have submitted DPA Requests by now...

Can everyone reading this thread...and I mean EVERYONE....please, please, please go to the following link and submit their application...

https://online.hmrc.gov.uk/shortform...ww.hmrc.gov.uk

It is unbelievably simple to do...all you need is your name/address/email address/NI Number and Tax Reference number (from your last tax return)...

The text I added in the free-form box was as follows...'Please provide copies of all paper and electronic records held on me.'.....just go ahead and copy/paste this...

THAT'S ALL THERE IS TO IT...Simple, Job Done!....it will take you less than 2 minutes of your time...it will probably take up several hours of HMRC time to comply...

So many of us have written to our MPs and received bog-standard replies...its been over a month now and we are still waiting for a reply from HM Treasury...submit your DPA Request and they HAVE to reply within 40 days...

Admit it.....Don't you want to know what HMRC have been saying about you?...Don't you want to know what records they hold on you...I know I do...

Go on, JUST DO IT...you know it makes sense!

Done!

[Ratican]

This IS big news. Has anybody got a link???

Here you are Helen7: http://www.salagir.com/gfx/troll-web.jpg

[Ratican]

Troll

re: SantaClaus:
"
Helen7, firstly I am convinced you are an Inland Revenue plant.
"

I think you could be bit harsh here.

There is still little doubt in my mind.
Have a look at all her posts - on all 3 BN66 threads - (click on her name next to one of her posts and select "view more posts...") - you will see why she is a troll.

http://forums.contractoruk.com/accou...tml#post644713