Huge tax bill because of advice from a mate down the pub
Today’s Blog is a classic example of not taking tax advice from a ‘mate down the pub’ and concerns a locum doctor’s £160k travel and subsistence expense claim falling down when subject to scrutiny at the First Tier Tax Tribunal (FTT) who found that he’d submitted “impossible” figures and made deliberate errors. Background Doctor Nwaneri […]
Tax avoidance, is it worth it?
Let’s start with a couple of truisms, tax evasion is against the law, whilst tax avoidance is a legal means of reducing your tax bill. That being said, it is also true that not all tax avoidance is legitimate. Are you with me so far, good; but no-one should be in any doubt that every […]
Are HMRC abusing the court system?
Recent evidence would strongly suggest that the answer is yes, given a recent string of both botched and unnecessary cases. HMRC’s litigation conduct has come under particular scrutiny in a recent first-tier tax tribunal (FTT) case in which our ‘wonderful’ tax authority made a last-minute U-turn at the eleventh hour. What happened? The underlying case […]
UK Tax Questions Answered by Shrewsbury Accountant No. 49
As I haven’t posted a Blog on the varied questions on tax asked by clients and members of the public for several months, I thought that today I would trawl through my internet postbag again. Hopefully I’ve found an interesting tax related question or two that you will find helpful or at least interesting. So, […]
The Great Marshmallow VAT saga, ‘Once s’more’
The sticky question of whether giant marshmallows are standard or zero rated for VAT has been rumbling through the tax courts, aka Tax Tribunals, since the first case was put before them in the autumn of 2022. On that occasion HMRC got a bloody nose, but ever a glutton for punishment, HMRC appealed to the […]
Making Tax Digital reporting and exemptions
Following on from a Blog on MTD, posted on 26th March, ‘MTD is now upon us’ I have now obtained HMRC’s final version of the 2026 regulations covering MTD reporting and exemptions. So today I will be looking at the more important changes. With effect from 6th April 2026, Making Tax Digital (MTD) for income […]
Companies House security blunder
Companies House have now admitted that a major security flaw in their WebFiling software has occurred. This has resulted in the confidential details of more than five million companies being put at risk. A major flaw in their software has meant that any user of the site was able to view and potentially amend items […]
MTD is now upon us
HMRC’s flagship tax regime Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD for IT) is now approaching at breakneck speed. The new tax regime will include all businesses and individuals with accounting years starting on 1st or 6th April 2026, at least for those who had a combined turnover from self-employment and property in excess of […]
VAT ON CHARGING YOUR EV
Today’s Blog came about following some research I was doing on the relative costs of an EV and I came upon a report of a recent Tax Tribunal that was highly relevant. This case concerned a public charging point operator (Charge My Street Limited aka CMS) who was charging VAT to its customers at the […]
Should you save, invest or overpay your mortgage?
Today’s Blog is targeted at the lucky cohort of individuals would have bought their own home, albeit with probably a hefty mortgage from their bank, and who have some spare income or perhaps a lump sum that’s been saved up. The question is, do you save your extra cash, invest it or use it to […]
