HMRC enquiries EBT - Castlemaine and general questions

[LudoP]

Hi

At the beginning of February I received a letter from HMRC asking for unpaid taxes related to an EBT for the year 2008/9. I managed to get in touch with Castlemaine and I received a mail from Audacia letting me know that they will put in place an appeal.

They have put forward a group appeal for all the Castlemaine contractors on Thursday the 27th of February. However on the 28th HMRC sent me a letter stating that as I didn't pay they will now charge me interests. My payment deadline was the 3rd of March so they assumed that if I didn't reply by the 28th I was not ready to pay.

What I would like is a confirmation from HMRC that an Appeal has been logged for me. I don't know if anybody else is in the same situation but I would love to hear their side of the story.

Now my big question is the following one:
If HMRC takes 6 months to deal with the appeal, will I get 5% penalties for each month or do the penalties/interests stop at the date of the appeal?

I have performed a search on the HMRC website and here is what I have found:

Charges with interest accruing

Interest will still accrue on the postponed amount until the appeal is resolved and any unpaid tax is paid. An appeal may be resolved by being settled by agreement between you and HMRC or decided by the tribunal.

You can limit the interest accruing by paying the amount due.

If the decision is changed and HMRC owes you money then you will be repaid the difference with interest.

To me this looks like I have to pay the amount requested otherwise I will be charged penalties. If my appeal is successful I will get a refund otherwise they keep my money.

Cheers

LudoP

[Jez123]

Hi LudoP

"What I would like is a confirmation from HMRC that an Appeal has been logged for me".

I know how you feel as I am in the same boat. Castlemaine advised they had put in a group appeal but I was worried sick the bailif's would turn up at my door so I phoned HMRC direct. They were very quick checking my details and advised they had received an appeal on my behalf so amount owed would be frozen (I hope that means no more worrying 'interest charges' letters for now)

[rufusTfirefly]

Castlemaine are acting on my behalf and I have received the appeal confirmation from HMRC today. The letter states that the balance owed for 2008/2009 has been re-set to £0.00 pending the appeal. If the appeal fails then the interest will then be charged.

[LudoP]

Hi guys

I have also received confirmation from HMRC that an appeal has been logged 2 days ago. Like you it states that if the appeal is not ruled in our favor I'll have to pay the claimed amount with additional penalties, interests, ...

My family and I could simply not live with this Damocles sword over our head so I took a different approach.

As I was lucky enough to be able to put my hands on enough funds, I have paid the claimed amount without prejudice. I stressed that I was doing so in order to stop these threatening letters coming through and still wanted the appeal to go through. I have also contacted a few HMRC offices in order to clarify the process and I have the recorded conversations.

Once the appeal is successful I may wait a few months before my money is refunded but I can now get on with my life. The chances of the appeal failing are seriously remote however I could not bear the thought of having to pay double if things go DD up.

The path I have taken may sound stupid to some however my marriage is more important than money ... whatever the cost.

It's a shame that HMRC cannot be accountable for all the distress, lack of sleep, arguments, ... their stance bring to families!!

In any case I'm please to see that I managed to get in touch with people who are in the same boat as me. I started to feel a bit lonely even if they were talking about a group appeal if you see what I mean.

Cheers!

[rufusTfirefly]

LudoP.
I fully understand your decision as I nearly paid up myself when I thought I was alone in this. We all have to do we think is right for us individually.
I have one or two questions though.
Have you informed Castlemaine that you have paid up and, if so, what was their reaction?
What did the HMRC officers tell you? Anything that you could share on here?
What makes you so sure the appeal will be successful?

Sorry if I'm being nosey.

[LudoP]

Hi

Please bear in mind that this is a personal point of view and that I do not advise anybody to follow the same process. It is also not something that the people dealing with our appeal recommend.

After the initial shock of the first letter, the second one including interests came as a very hard blow. My wife went mental and I could not cope anymore with such pressure. I belt that I was in a vicious circle that I had to break if I wanted to regain some sanity and control.

I called Audacia and asked if paying the fees would not cancel the appeal. I also called HMRC in order to confirm that I was ready to pay without prejudice and that when my appeal was successful I would get refunded. Both parties confirmed that this was the case. I have recorded the conversations for good measure.

Paying now means that if the appeal is successful I may wait a few months before getting my money back. However if the appeal fails then I would have already paid and would not get charged additional penalties or interests.

That last point was the key for me as I wanted to get on with my life. I have paid but stressing that I was not admitting liability and was expecting full refund after the appeal.

Now I move on ...

I hope this answers your questions.

Feel free to PM me anytime.

Cheers

[Jez123]

Hi LudoP

I know what you mean about the stress etc... I also understand why you paid up. I am going to tough it out but it's nice knowing I'm not the only contractor on Castlemaine's books going through this.

[jamesbond007]

You are not alone!

Hi LudoP

I know what you mean about the stress etc... I also understand why you paid up. I am going to tough it out but it's nice knowing I'm not the only contractor on Castlemaine's books going through this.

There are probably more of us than you think. However keeping information channelled through the provider rather than speculation and chatter on a public forum seems the sensible way forwards!

[LudoP]

I do agree that we need to be careful and keep Audacia, Castlemaine, ... informed. That's what I did when I discussed my plan of paying without prejudice.

Having said that, even if you're told that you're part of a group appeal, you do not have any contact with anybody else from the group. You can therefore feel extremely alone.

I think that it brings some relief to be able to make contact with other members of the group even if it's just to say "hi there, I'm with you". It brings a human touch where there is only standards HMRC letters spat from computer systems.

I am not a number!!

Iron Maiden version of course. :-)

May be stupid to some people but it soothe my mind. Also thanks to T who PM me.

[rufusTfirefly]

Hi

I've had a letter today form HMRC re-confiming the appeal is in place and that they will be writing to Bryrne and Partners to outline the HMRC stance on the appeal. They also state that this is not a retrospective taxation as the anti avoidance rules relevant to my case were in place at 2008/2009 !
I have forwarded the letter on to Richard at Audacia.
Anyone else received this type of letter?
Feel free to PM if preferable.