HMRC Enquiry letters on Loans from EBT and other schemes

[bluerover]

They can believe anything they like. The only opinion that matters is a court of law.

If they were in a strong position they would issue Closure Notices.



Yep, they want you to think you're screwed so you may as well throw the towel in now.

Yeah it just feels like the whole parking ticket. Pay in 30 days or there will be more you owe. But at the same time I'm nervous about rattling any cages and them end up trying to charge me more if they request information.

"In the assessment I have estimated the additional taxable income based on the information currently avialable to me." It sounds a little vague. They don't say what information...

I have a P45 from the company and a letter advising me of final charges to settle the loan. I am not sure thats enough...

What are Closure Notices? Apologies for the naivety here...

[DonkeyRhubarb]

What are Closure Notices? Apologies for the naivety here...

Read this.
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/emmanual/EM3831.htm

There is a formal procedure HMRC have to follow to conclude an enquiry.

Your enquiry letter may refer to Section 9a TMA 1970 and/or Code of Practice 8.

[bluerover]

Read this.
EM3852 - Concluding an Enquiry: SA Legislation: When is an SA Enquiry Legally Completed and Amendments Valid

There is a formal procedure HMRC have to follow to conclude an enquiry.

Your enquiry letter may refer to Section 9a TMA 1970 and/or Code of Practice 8.

Thanks DonkeyRhubarb. Sounds like they are fishing still. Mind you the 30 day notice period before surcharges apply is a great way to get the ball rolling in their favour...

[DonkeyRhubarb]

Thanks DonkeyRhubarb. Sounds like they are fishing still. Mind you the 30 day notice period before surcharges apply is a great way to get the ball rolling in their favour...

Any chance you could post the text of the letter, including any statutes they refer to eg. Section 9a TMA 1970, Section 28A(1)&(2) TMA 1970.

I have a feeling they are playing fast and loose with the law.

[bluerover]

Letter from HMRC

I enclose a notice of assessment to Income Tax for the Tax Year 2008/09. I have made this assessment under the discovery provisions of Section 29 Taxes Management Act 1970, in order to protect HMRC's position and ensure that tax due for 2008/09 is not lost because of the statutory time limits for issuing assessments.

In addition to income already taxed, this assessment brings into charge further sums that you received during the year. These related to an employment arrangement you entered into with Talent Resource Management Ltd, a company sited outside the UK. Although described as loans, I believe that these sums relate to your professional work in the UK and are taxable income. In the assessment, I have estimated the additional taxable income based on the information currently available to me. The attached notice explains how to appeal. If you disagree with this assessment, you must appeal within 30 days of the date of the notice of assessment.

[Sky Rocket]

I have on Friday received a similar letter based on 2008/2009 tax year. I was through Talent Resource Management (Also known as Payscheme Plus, Cherrylon & Redding Capital Finance).

There is no trace of this company and have found out they wound up voluntarily in 2010. So I am left either fighting it (and not knowing how without support from the company I used) or paying it the bill? It interesting the wording used in the letter saying the payments received as loans but they believe they relate to professional work and so are taxable. Doesn't sound like they are convinced what they are asking for...

I know it could come back and bite me and am a wiser person now and thankfully I only used it for a year and moved to a limited company, but something niggles me how its worded its almost like it is trying to scare me into paying rather than contesting it.

Anyone else through Talent Resource at this time and had one of these letters?

Bluerover, Talent / Cherrylon are now known as Raingold (.co.uk). I too have received a copy of this letter and fired this off to them today to find out what next steps are. They are getting one of their tax advisors to give me a call to discuss lodging an appeal. , Suffice to say, I'm very nervous..! Give them a call - I know of other people who no longer use them but have also forwarded recently received HMRC letters and they have responded on their behalf.

[DonkeyRhubarb]

I enclose a notice of assessment to Income Tax for the Tax Year 2008/09. I have made this assessment under the discovery provisions of Section 29 Taxes Management Act 1970, in order to protect HMRC's position and ensure that tax due for 2008/09 is not lost because of the statutory time limits for issuing assessments.

In addition to income already taxed, this assessment brings into charge further sums that
you received during the year. These related to an employment arrangement you entered into with Talent Resource Management Ltd, a company sited outside the UK. Although described as loans, I believe that these sums relate to your professional work in the UK and are taxable income. In the assessment, I have estimated the additional taxable income based on the information currently available to me. The attached notice explains how to
appeal. If you disagree with this assessment, you must appeal within 30 days of the date of the notice of assessment.

OK, you cannot ignore this.

You need to appeal.

See Sky Rocket's post above.

At this stage you don't need to provide detailed technical arguments just a statement that you disagree with the assessment. That puts the ball back in HMRC's court.

My guess is they will be hoping that a lot of people will simply cave in and accept the assessments. The letter is designed to make it seem like HMRC have the upper hand but I don't believe that is the case at all. Crafty bastards.

[faxmachine]

I was with TRM and have had an assessment letter

Hi Bluerover, I appear to be in the same position as you - unfortunately I was slightly over a year. I think I will be asking for a postponement - however I would appreciate any advice/info you may have as we appear to be in a similar position.

Regards

I have on Friday received a similar letter based on 2008/2009 tax year. I was through Talent Resource Management (Also known as Payscheme Plus, Cherrylon & Redding Capital Finance).

There is no trace of this company and have found out they wound up voluntarily in 2010. So I am left either fighting it (and not knowing how without support from the company I used) or paying it the bill? It interesting the wording used in the letter saying the payments received as loans but they believe they relate to professional work and so are taxable. Doesn't sound like they are convinced what they are asking for...

I know it could come back and bite me and am a wiser person now and thankfully I only used it for a year and moved to a limited company, but something niggles me how its worded its almost like it is trying to scare me into paying rather than contesting it.

Anyone else through Talent Resource at this time and had one of these letters?

[shevlane]

I also received this letter from HMRC today

Hi Bluerover, SkyRocket & everyone else...

I *also* received this exact same letter today. It is worded exactly the same as yours Bluerover, word-for-word. Quite a coincidence that we all received them on the same day!

Mine also has a tax calculation of what you are supposed to owe. Not sure how they calculated that!?!

The tax year they are chasing is 08/09, but I also used this provider in 09/10 and 10/11. My fear is that if you pay up for one year, HMRC will take it for granted that they can try to tackle you for further years.

I don't have a clue what to do in terms of next steps. I think I try to call Raingold tomorrow like you did SkyRocket, and see what they have to say. I am not holding out hope that they will help though.

We should stay in touch and see how we are going to tackle this. If we pool our resources, we can possibly split any costs involved, and stand a better chance of fighting this...

[Penguin]

I too received the same letter as Bluerover on Thursday last week. I was working through Sanzar Partnership for 6 months in 2008/9 (and then for a couple of months through Sanzar Solutions in 2009/10). Through reading these threads I found out that Sanzar is now Garraway Consultants, so I contacted them and they referred me to Contractor Helpdesk who then said that Cobham Murphy could help me lodge an appeal if I sign to let them act as my temporary adviser. They said this wouldn't cost me. Has anyone heard of Contractor Helpdesk and/or Cobham Murphy?

I have also spoken to my accountant who said he would look at all the paperwork for free and advise me what he thinks I should do, but his initial reaction was "I'll work out what you should have paid..." Er..no I don't think so.

Reading the HMRC website I can't see how the Discovery Assessment they have sent me is legal. I sent them all the details of the loans in my 2008/9 tax return and was fully expecting them to query it, so I kept some money back for it for a year afterwards and they never did. To raise a Discovery Assessment they have to have "discovered" some new information don't they? Or have I misunderstood that?

I used these schemes for 8 months and started to feel uncomfortable about it so stopped.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this issue so far, which has calmed me down a bit over the past few days