Andy Burnham’s tax options
Today I’ve decided to look into my crystal ball to explore the tax options potentially available to Andy Burnham and his Chancellor John Healey, ahead of the budget scheduled for Wednesday 28th October. Since moving into Number 10, Andy Burnham is clearly a man on a mission. The good news is that on first impressions, […]
HMRC can now raid your bank account
Recently, HMRC announced that it plans to chase lower value tax debt more aggressively by direct recovery of debt powers being extended to lower value tax debts worth up to £10,000, with direct access to its’ ‘customers’ bank accounts, subject to a national consultation. Background The debate on this subject has been ongoing since 2015 […]
HMRC plan to collect all tax by direct debit
Today’s Blog is about mounting HMRC concerns over late payment of VAT and PAYE. They are now looking at ways to combat this and their preferred option is that in future all such payments will no longer be down to the taxpayer but be taken by direct debit (DDM) on the day the payments are […]
Yet another sorry tale of taking advice from a mate down the pub
It seems like every few days that I hear of someone taking dodgy advice from a mate down the pub, rather than talking to a qualified accountant, with this week’s Blog being typical of a number of similar cases that have come to my attention recently. Today’s tale of woe involved an NHS nurse who […]
New tax return impositions on company directors
On 5th April 2026 and for all future tax years, the rules governing the personal tax returns of company directors changed. They now have to include additional information when they complete their returns. On the surface, a cursory look at the new requirements, would appear to show that the additional information requested is only a […]
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 […]
