Reckless, mean, inept – the tax officials who sank businessman over bill he'd already

[minestrone]

A heart warming story....

A PARLIAMENTARY watchdog yesterday condemned the government's main revenue agency for the "mean spirited" way it "recklessly" drove a Scottish businessman into bankruptcy over a VAT bill he had already paid.
Edward Fowler, 56, lost his reputation as a successful businessman and his £1 million-a-year recruitment company six years ago after HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) began court proceedings to have him sequestrated over a £37,000 VAT bill........

linkypoos

[DS23]

all because the papers were signed by a temp who forgot to tell him.

[Solidec]

Really doesnt surprise me, hector and his chums are all twunts!

[jmo21]

one less recruitment company isn't the worst thing i've heard

[Swamp Thing]

Gosh those HMRC wags! They're all heart, aren't they?

[Mich the Tester]

"Mr Fowler has now been offered £50,000 in compensation by Customs bosses. "

£50,000 compensation for losing a business with a >£1,000,000 turnover?

The inland revenue should pay this man the full value of the business at the time of these events. That would be more like £5,000,000.

[BrilloPad]

What happens when HMRC have too much power.

Now they are doing retrospective taxation (see the bn66 thread).

They need their wings clipping.

[Purple Dalek]

If you or I did anything like this they'd have us in jail faster than tulip off a shovel, but what happens to these "tax officials": promotion, increase pay, more time off ...

[Solidec]

Well they can still be taken to court, so I assume Mr Fowler is going to use the full weight of the law to bring charges against HMRC? PCG have show that HMRC are not infallible

[Sysman]

linkypoos

So it started with this:

Mr Fowler's nightmare began after he had problems with the computerised accounting system at his business. He was unable to submit a full VAT return, leading HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to issue an assessment and default surcharge, totalling £41,475.

A computer failure or theft could happen to anyone, but it was drilled into me when I first became VAT registered that you do not miss the deadline for filing VAT returns. I was under the illusion at first that you weren't allowed to file the return without an accompanying cheque, but someone pointed out to me that if you couldn't afford to write a cheque, then you should still submit the return on time to avoid incurring a penalty for a late return.

With that in mind, surely he could have submitted a provisional return to avoid being assessed? He must have had enough of an idea from previous returns and bank statements to get near the real figure, even without his accounting system. At the minimum he should have called in an accountant to deal with the problem - a decent one could have whipped up a proper VAT return from the original paperwork within a pretty short space of time.

It would be interesting to know what the nature of the "computer problem" was. I see an opportunity here for those who understand accounts and are on the bench - put a package together which includes off site backups, the loan of a computer (or even just a printer!) for disasters, and advertise this service to local businesses. In this era of online filing, you could also offer the use of your own broadband etc. etc.