Tax Newsletter 21 Jan
For many accountants the idea of a new client asking for help over the next few days is a nightmare. This isn't true across the board and even where it's an unwelcome intrusion you may want to do what you can. Our practical points this week consider what you can do when Mr Nu-Client walks into your practice wanting to get his tax affairs straight. We have advice on how to deal with such last minute clients, and an update on who is eligible to use the tax disclosure opportunity for medics.
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After the practical points in this newsletter I have put the Spotlight on one of our tax adviser members, provided another 'Did you know...?' thought and included another tax fun spot. There's a also a prompt to upgrade your membership as you are no longer entitled to receive the full newsletter.
For now, here is a summary of the practical points addressed in the full newsletter today:
No UTR number
If you do have time to deal with Mr. Nu-Client at this time of year the first
questions you need to ask him are.......
[And his answers will determine what you can do for him and what further information you will require before you do so. You will want to check the validity of the information provided too]
Sorry - key elements of this item, our practical advice and useful links are only available to silver plus, gold and platinum professional members.
No NI number
In order to register for self-assessment and get a UTR number Mr. Nu-Cleint
needs to complete either form CWF 1 as a self-employed individual, or SA 1 in
other cases (see our newsletter 24 September 2009). However, both of these
forms ask for an NI number.
If Mr. Nu-Client is not a UK national he may not have a UK NI number........
Where Mr. Nu-Client has lived in the UK since the age of 16 or earlier he should
have been allocated a UK NI number. In this case ask him to...........
Sorry - key elements of this item, our practical advice and useful links are only available to silver plus, gold and platinum professional members.
Tax disclosure for medics and more
In last week's newsletter (14 January 2010) we outlined the principles of the Tax
Health Plan, which was promoted by HMRC as a new disclosure opportunity for
'medical professionals'.
We tried to make it clear that when HMRC said 'medical professionals' it meant just medical doctors registered with the General Medical council (GMC), as a GMC registration number is needed to register an intention to make a disclosure under the Tax Health Plan. The GMC generally only deals with medical doctors, not other health professionals.
However, confusion was sown by the HMRC FAQs for the Tax Health Plan that
states at question 2: The Tax Heath Plan is open to all Medical Professionals. This
lead tax advisers and taxpayers to believe this disclosure opportunity was open to
any qualified professional in the medical profession, including dentists.
On 18 January 2010, HMRC announced that the Tax Health Plan will be opened
up to dentists, although dentists are not regulated by the GMC so do not have a
GMC registration number. We expect HMRC to release more information shortly
about how dentists can make a disclosure under the Tax Health Plan, after
discussions between HMRC and the bodies that regulate dentists have been
concluded.
Other medical professionals will have to ..........
Accountants and tax advisers have been placed in an awkward position by the HMRC dithering over medial professionals, and their implication that further disclosure
opportunities will be announced for other professional groups. If you advise a
client to make a full voluntary disclosure of their undeclared income or gains to
HMRC, you cannot predict exactly what level of penalty will be imposed. It is likely to be at least 20% and often will be much higher especially where a seasoned negotiator is not involved. But if the client makes a disclosure under the Tax Health Plan (or possibly under another yet to be announced plan) he will be charged no penalty where the tax due is less than £1,000 and 'only' 10% otherwise.
There is one further catch..........
Sorry - key elements of this item, our practical advice and useful links are only available to silver plus, gold and platinum professional members.
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Upgrade to Professional Membership
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The answer is easy - you simply need to upgrade now.
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And there are further benefits available if you upgrade to Gold or Platinum membership levels. Full details here.
Most people find it easy enough to upgrade online. If you do have any problems though just call and ask for Morag who will do what she can to assist.
Spotlight on: Pauline Lonsdale
Pauline is one of our founder members and has a very different background to any of the other members. In addition to being a Fellow of the ICAEW she is also a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) and a member of the Institute of Professional Will writers (IPW). Additionally she is a member of the STEP Probate and Estates Committee.
Having originally trained with one of the biggest firms she moved to a small firm after qualifying as an accountant and has been heavily involved in trusts and estates related work since 1993.
Based in Bromley, Pauline is happy advising clients across London and the South East. You can see her full profile here. It's nicely laid out and explains how she can provide assistance with tax planning, matters related to the administration of estates, HMRC Capital Tax related investigations and disputes between advisers and beneficiaries.
And if you decide to call or email Pauline please remeber to tell her that it was this note in the newsletter that prompted you.
You can see all of the other tax adviser member profiles simply by choosing a topic from our list of over 30 specialisms - or using the free text search bar which you will find on the home page of our website.
Tax Fun spot
Ten failed excuses for not paying your taxes
The taxman has heard it all before. Taxpayers frequently offer the same old excuses when they get caught failing to disclose all their taxable income :
- "Everybody does it....... don't they?"
- "I was ill, I had a nervous breakdown"
- "It was a present from an old uncle who's dead now"
- "How did you find out that? I thought no one would ever know"
- "It's not that serious..... is it?"
- "It's offshore, so it doesn't count...... does it?"
- "I won it playing poker"
- "Hypothetically speaking, what if I did?"
- "I met this guy on a plane and he said it was alright"
- "Pardon Mois, mais je ne parle pas le Franglais"
Do you have any other favourites?
Items appearing in this 'tax fun' spot are taken from the Accountant-Jokes.com blog - with my permission!
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Tax Advice Network - Did you know....
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