Reply to: Dignatio CFP scheme

Re: IR

Simon,
What is the basis of your opinion?
From what I have read, Dignatio went down because of a large corporation tax bill and not because of the mechanics of the scheme.

It is also likely that they will be paying this bill from money that they have not submitted to the EBT which only goes to reinforce the contractors stance with regard to tax laibilities.

So the legality was never in question. In theory, if Dignatio could persuade its contractors to pay for its mistake, they could still be operating.

Re: IR

They can only go back 20 years if they suspect fraud, and this really would not apply to the contractors.

I reckon you have a fair chance of getting investigated - it is fairly easy pickings for the Revenue unless someone has investigation insurance (which is very unlikely for this sort of scheme)

Re: IR

IIRC, there's only one director and he is not a UK citizen, so may be outside the IR's reach. And there is a principle in law somewhere about artifical financial constructs used to step around paying tax.

Ex-Dignatio clients (among others, of course) are not safe yet, not until 2022. The IR rights of investigation can go back for 20 years.

IR

Slim, but they can. Hopefully they will make an example out of the Dignatio directors and take them to the cleaners. It would be expensive and time-consuming for the IR to pursue this throughly, but they can. I am really annoyed that Dignatio have put this many people in this position

Dignatio

What do you think the chances are of Inland Revenue coming after us (ie the contractors that have used the scheme) for the additional PAYE and NI?

Dignatio

like I said:

I went with Dignatio:

1) It was apparent that they were not operating the scheme they said they did - The bank they say existed didn't
2) They didn't ever have any forward contracts with which you indenpendently verify
3) There scheme they said they had didn't exist - I took all my money and ran - the sale guy Stuart Little did a presentation and I thought he was lying through his teeth. I'm pretty sure hes the man behind this hold scheme.
4) I have the directors address if anybody would like it (via companies house)- If you have outstanding monies then you could write to them

Jason

Test

Test

Re: ukcontract01

They havent gone bust Tim. They need to be financially solvent in order to go into voluntary liquidation.

However, they may have been presented a large corp tax bill (or whatever) and decided the only means of paying it is with the EBT (That part may well have been a scam). It'll be interesting to find out how many people get their money in a couple of weeks time.

Re: ukcontract01

.....Inland Revenue would soon realise this - and disallow transactions with connected companies/ficticious transactions - hence presenting Dignatio with a massive Corporation Tax bill they couldn't pay and so go bust.

Um, don't you think that perhaps this is exactly what has just happened? ISTM to be the most plausable of the possibilities.

Tim

Dignatio / EBTs

Dignatio looked iffy from the start - I suspect that they didn't actually have a genuine EBT set up - nor a foreign bank or foreign currency broker

Inland Revenue would soon realise this - and disallow transactions with connected companies/ficticious transactions - hence presenting Dignatio with a massive Corporation Tax bill they couldn't pay and so go bust

EBTs are legal/viable (correctly set up with professional/reputable trustees)

Just as one iffy company folds - along comes another - just try getting the trustees details from Norla Consulting - with any umbrella company just ignore the sales patter and check out credentials of accountants/trustees - if the info isn't forthcoming - don't join up

Are u mad?

RAC - either run a true limited company and defend your corner on ir35 or use a bog standard umbrella. Any ebt scheme is (imo) a red rag to a red (Hector) bull, especially those that state "avoid ir35".

Re: CFP Liquidation

OMGawd

"People not learning by their previous mistakes shocker"

I can just see the headline in The Sun now.

I remember a while ago, on this board, one of the resident accountants was being slated by you lot for stating this scheme was a bit iffy.

And now your thinking of looking at another one?!?!?!?!

Re: CFP Liquidation

What, a similar scheme to the one that has just gone bust? Rumoured (by an accountant on this board) to be because the taxman was on to them?

Well, funnily enough, no I don’t.

CFP Liquidation

Does anyone have any factual inside knowledge of why this company has gone into liquidation?

Now that they have gone under, does anyone have a recommendation for an alternative company running a similar scheme?

Re: watch out for this guy

"taking a rather large amount of a fair few contractors cash with them"

Not ******* yet they haven't!!!

Grrrrrr!