Need good advice (tax advisor)

[eek]

Stuff that is relevant if the op was not in his current position

As I stated before following webberg’s advice don’t try and be clever here. Get the appropriate information (bank statements, contracts...) together and speak to the people Webberg has mentioned.

Delay ignoring things or trying to be clever will result in jail

[Fred Bloggs]

As I stated before following webberg’s advice don’t try and be clever here. Get the appropriate information (bank statements, contracts...) together and speak to the people Webberg has mentioned.

Delay ignoring things or trying to be clever will result in jail

Totally, I just skim read the COP9 guidelines on HMRC website. This is real grown ups stuff. I expect we already had the last word from the OP.

[Fred Bloggs]

Totally, I just skim read the COP9 guidelines on HMRC website. This is real grown ups stuff. I expect we already had the last word from the OP.

Cripes, just reading the first paragraph of page 2 properly scares me to death. I am so happy I never got into any of this all too clever tax avoidance/evasion malarkey.

[cojak]

Hi Suraj
Really important to get atleast a rudimentary understanding of your position before you engage a professional as they will waste hours establishing it for you which means £££s for something you can easily do yourself.

This is not a COP8 investigation that everyone else here has received - it is a COP9.

Any tax advisor who wants to keep the OP out of jail will do all of that AGAIN. In great detail. And make the OP account for every. single. penny.

[webberg]

Been looking at this position a little more.

My core advice remains to go and see a specialist - quickly.

I do however wonder if the alleged amount due is from a company owned and operated by the OP, rather than an individual assessment?

Certainly action against EBTs operated by companies are further down the road in terms of tax position with several cases lost and even where under appeal, likely to lose again now that Sempra and Dextra have been considered to have been wrongly decided.

Failure to respond to HMRC in such cases might well attract a more severe response from HMRC.

However, it's not really my area and I doubt that I can help, professionally or personally, so go and get that advice.

[Fred Bloggs]

This is not a COP8 investigation that everyone else here has received - it is a COP9.

Any tax advisor who wants to keep the OP out of jail will do all of that AGAIN. In great detail. And make the OP account for every. single. penny.

Totally agree. This is a fraud investigation. Other than armed robbery, it really does not get any more serious. To get a flavour of how serious it is, read the first paragraph of page 2 of HMRC COP9 guidelines document. If I got a COP9 demand, I'd likely have a heart attack on the spot.

[Darren at Fox-Bartfield]

Tax Defence

If you have a COP9 then you need legal help. If you want to stick with tax enquiry firms then you need to look for COP9 specialists as that is serious stuff.

Any firm willing to take on the disclosure etc is likely to be charging by the hour as it's always uncertain how long the process may take. I'd be surprised if any firm would take you on for a fixed fee and deliver a decent result.

+1, just to add another name into the ring, Gary Clarkson ([email protected]) who heads up the Tax defence and Strategies team, previously with HMRC dealing with COP matters.

[SurajSingh]

Thanks - its imprisonment or bankruptcy

Thanks everyone, I think I would go bankrupt as have a consultation yesterday with a specialist accountant and only fee is around £40k. Other than that he says you would need to pay every penny of tax avoided in last 21 years. My fault i think i would need a restart after one year when become a discharged bankrupt. Please do take care of your self and dont try to avoid tax as it has been a long and painful month. I still have to pay tax adviser even dont have to pay money for tax in order to avoid prosecution. I have discussed with him all going on in contractor industry , the action and big group and WTT consulting etc. and hmrc clubing down all avoidance schemes. He says there is no way you can avoid paying tax as hmrc have got a computer system which is scanning through your banks for last 10 years. it can also get records from other databases linked to land registries and DVLA and there are 35 data bases which it is connected to. Really?????? if that the case be God with us. I think time to relocate to Canada or Australia.

[BrilloPad]

He says there is no way you can avoid paying tax as hmrc have got a computer system which is scanning through your banks for last 10 years. it can also get records from other databases linked to land registries and DVLA and there are 35 data bases which it is connected to. Really?????? if that the case be God with us. I think time to relocate to Canada or Australia.

I think you mean evade rather than avoid based on what you posted here. And that you got a COP9. And they can reach you abroad too.

I suspect you used aggressive avoidance too (EBT) which HMRC now consider evasion. Anyone who uses that now is going to get a good kicking.

Why not contract(once you are out of bankruptcy) using a limited company or umbrella?

[eek]

He says there is no way you can avoid paying tax as hmrc have got a computer system which is scanning through your banks for last 10 years. it can also get records from other databases linked to land registries and DVLA and there are 35 data bases which it is connected to.

Outsourced system provided by Bae Applied Intelligence... For reference it also compares VAT returns with Corporate tax returns...