Accountants and contractors

[northernladuk]

I get the impression if you fess up they tend to be quite collaborative, though I have zero personal experience of this.

I saw the numbers of HMRC investigations the other day for the past few years - remarkably low compared to the number of small / medium companies but that is off the point of your post!!

A book keeper friend of mine explained that if you can prove due diligence and you have attempted to carry out whatever part of your expenses to the letter but get it wrong they are pretty lenient. If you have blatently taken the piss or shown utter disregard to the whole process they will throw the book at you. Although they are looking at the finances they also take in to account how seriously you take your responsibilities. She said fess'ing up once your caught did not cut it if you have shown disregard for your responsibilities.

Seems to make sense to me and would hope this is the case.