Churchill Knight & Boox clients being investigated as Managed Service Companies

[Sky Rocket]

Throughout 2007-2021 myco used SJD. Not once did they mention a portal. I used the spreadsheet.

They developed a portal around 2018 I think.

[Fred Bloggs]

Hey, for the time I was using them they had a spreadsheet that I used to fill out every quarter for them to calculate my VAT and then year end submissions. They did then develop an online portal, which was bloody awful. I couldn’t get on with it at all so continued to use the spreadsheet up until I left. My company was formally dissolved at the end of 2021.

I have massive sympathy for anyone caught up in this. Having been subject to the loan charge with that investigation still ongoing (9 years and counting) I’m not sure I’ve got the stomach for another one.

There is no MSC case to answer. If you used the spreadsheet and had vanilla book keeping from SJD, you aren't an MSC. As a layperson, I don't believe you have much to worry about presently. If you can, perhaps gather together all the information you can demonstrating that SJD weren't your MSCP and keep it all safe should you ever need it. Then just get on with your life.

[cojak]

Ok Greg. This looks like a subset of ‘In Business on Your Own Account’.

While CK are looking like they’ve got questions to answer, it looks as if you have solid answers to those questions.

So organise your folder with EVERYTHING that shows that you are a businessman. Dig out all correspondence for organising your Ltd, Vat and everything else (digital and paper) that shows that you set up and run the LTd on your own. Make sure that those answers are given to your tax advisor and your MP.

And remember to put all of this evidence into your appeal to HMRC - you have 30 days from the date of the letter to return it.

View this as a form of IR35 investigation - HMRC are wrong in your circumstances and a good defence will get you out of this.

I’ll just bump my post in case anyone missed it.

And here are the things you should have recorded : https://www.contractoruk.com/private...side_ir35.html

[jamesbrown]

Speaking of smashing through the looking glass into the jaw dropping shampoo world of our tax overlords.....

There is a lot of poorly drafted legislation out there, especially before it gets to the HoL, but some makes it out into the real world too, so it largely depends on case law to clarify the intention of Parliament and the interpretation/application of the law based on legal precedent. To be fair, the right answer is often arrived at eventually, but not necessarily at the FTT or even the UTT, hence the time scales discussed above.

[Sky Rocket]

There is no MSC case to answer. If you used the spreadsheet and had vanilla book keeping from SJD, you aren't an MSC. As a layperson, I don't believe you have much to worry about presently. If you can, perhaps gather together all the information you can demonstrating that SJD weren't your MSCP and keep it all safe should you ever need it. Then just get on with your life.

Thanks. That gives me some reassurance.

[jamesbrown]

Hat tip to Stewie from the IPSE forum.

[GregRickshaw]

Hat tip to Stewie from the IPSE forum.

To quote a famous character from many many years ago..... "We'rre dooomed" said in a very heavy Scottish accent

[cojak]

Hat tip to Stewie from the IPSE forum.

[cojak]

https://www.contractoruk.com/news/00...rs_warned.html

[eek]

In the dim and distant past I do remember hunting for a replacement to Crunch (we are talking about the time Crunch were working out how to compete with FreeAgent as they pivoted from accountancy to being a software firm back and then back to being an accountancy firm) and I do remembering looking at Boox and thinking not for me. But at the time nothing (even that video) said they were an MSC because prior to 2015 everyone thought MSC providers controlled the money and not controlling the money was enough to be safe.

It's worth saying my linkedIn feed is now full of accountancy firms saying we told you so and others trying to scare agencies but what they fail to understand is that this was very much a case of there but for the grace of God goes a lot of contractors.