Churchill Tax Advisers blogs and news
03300 577106Tax credits deadline, don’t lose out
Tax credits customers have until the 31st July 2020 to tell HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) about changes to their circumstances or income. If you have received a letter to reconfirm their income details must contact HMRC if your circumstances have changed. Failure to...
Hospitality Industry Welcomes HMRC Eat Out to Help Out Scheme
Restaurants and other establishments that serve food for consumption on a premises can now sign up to a new government scheme aimed to prevent loss of employment in the hospitality industry and encourage people to safely return to dining out. The Eat Out to Help Out...
Finance Bill 2020
This year’s Finance Bill received Royal Assent on 22 July 2020 and will now pass into law as the Finance Act 2020. There are a lot of new items, here are the headlines: Loan Charge (Disguised Remuneration) Possible repayments for existing settlements can now start to...
Furlough Fraud
CJRS (Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme) and SEISS (Self-Employment Income Support Scheme) grants knowingly misused can be a charged as a criminal offence. If HMRC open an enquiry and do not prosecute, the Officers can pursue penalties up to 100% of the tax due. The...
The case of K E Entertainments Ltd [2020]
K E Entertainments Ltd [2020] was a case relating to the recovery from HMRC of overpaid VAT in relation to supplies of Bingo, where the tax treatment of the supply had changed. The taxpayer tried to recover all the tax overpaid, over a considerable period of time, but...
In the case of R (oao JJ Management Consulting LLP) v R & C Commrs [2020]:
This case arose out of the Court of Appeal after a taxpayer had brought a Judicial Review against an informal investigation started by HMRC into an individual taxpayer. The outcome of the Court of Appeal Judgment was that HMRC are allowed to conduct investigations...
Furlough fraud and SEISS recovery – HMRC’s COVID-19 clawback!!
If you have made a mistake, or an intentional incorrect claim, then now is the time to disclose and make it right with HMRC. Last month HMRC issued a new draft legislation which will allow HMRC to impose penalties up to 100% of the amounts overclaimed. This is in...
Three men arrested after 8 million cigarettes are seized
Eight million suspected illicit cigarettes are seized and three men, 34, 37, and 55 have been arrested during a Joint Agency Task Force (JATF) operation in Co Armagh. Officers from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) attended a property in Newry this morning and made the...
Hashmi
The case of Hashmi related to the private residence relief regarding capital gains tax. The case was lost in the First-Tier Tribunal Tax because the Appellant had tried to claim the PRR on three properties that had been sold on fairly quickly after purchase. The...
Nicholas & Charlotte Sandham t/a Premier Metals Leeds [2020]
Nicholas & Charlotte Sandham t/a Premier Metals Leeds [2020] related to an appeal where a scrap-metal partnership was denied input tax recovery because an agent under their instruction was found to have known that transactions entered into by the partnership under...
R(aoa JJ Management Consulting LL and others) v HMRC
This case relates to the Court of Appeal rejecting a challenge to HMRC's ability to use informal investigatory powers to require a taxpayer to voluntarily provide information. The Appellant is a UK domiciled taxpayer using corporate vehicles to run a chain of...
Tax Abuse And Insolvency
HMRC are currently awaiting the passing by Parliament of the latest Finance Act, which will give them a new weapon in their fight against tax abuse arising from insolvencies. HMRC have regarded for some time that insolvency laws are open to abuse and that this abuse...
Rank Group
The Rank Group had attempted to recover excessive output tax declared and paid to HMRC in relation to Bingo sales, which had been incorrectly standard rated since the inception of VAT, forty-seven years ago. Most of the claims had been accepted and repaid by HMRC...
Union Castle Mail Steamship Company
The Court of Appeal ruled on closure notices that had disallowed deductions in corporation tax. The deductions related to administrative matters in relation to derivatives contracts. The Court of Appeal agreed with the lower courts that these type of costs were not...
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is a partially exempt trader who tried to make its overall input tax recovery including the costs of putting on productions attributable to the taxable supplies it makes. These are essentially catering and hospitality supplies made before and...
46 Years For £120million Booze Fraud Gang
A gang from Berkshire that stole £34 million in VAT and laundered £87 million after selling illicit alcohol have been jailed for more than 46 years. Gang leaders Jayesh Shah, Riaz Khan, Fiaz Raja and Muhammad Rasool, orchestrated a VAT fraud. Gang members then...
Golfing Tobacco Smuggler Putt In Jail
A keen golfer who enjoyed playing golf in exotic locations by dodging tax on smuggled tobacco has been jailed. Dhanji Varsani, 56, North West London, shipped in nearly 7000kg of hand-rolling tobacco worth £1.2 million in unpaid excise duty, an investigation by HM...
Callous Fraudsters Jailed for £60million HIV Cure Scam
Two Fraudsters have been jailed for a total of 14 and a half years after using HIV research to try and steal £60million through a fraudulent tax avoidance scheme. Antony Blake, 68, and John Banyard, 70, used their company, Ethical Trading and Marketing Ltd, attract...
Tax implications on gifting property before death
This unusual case came to us following the clients' father passing away. The deceased father had gifted some properties to the children two years before death following advice on signing a retrospective deed of trust. We were asked to check whether the retrospective...
HMRC withdraw Tax Tribunal Case against Churchill Tax Advisers’ client
This case came to us several years ago from another firm of accountants. It involved a take away/ restaurant being under investigation by HMRC’s VAT team and assessments being raised. We challenged the assessments as being unreasonable putting forward our strong...
Offshore tax restructuring of business
This client came to us following a recommendation by their own accountant for specialist tax advice. The client had a successful retail business including online sales. The existing business model meant that it was paying more corporation tax and VAT than it needed...
Malde v HMRC
In the case of Malde v HMRC the First-tier Tribunal dismissed the Appellant’s appeal against HMRCs refusal to allow input tax to be reclaimed in relation to legal fees incurred by a sole trader where the input tax the individual had incurred in dealing with a freezing...
HMRC Application For Permission To Appeal To The Upper Tribunal
This case was an HMRC application for permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal in a case where they had initially lost in the First-tier Tribunal on the matter of whether Discovery Assessments issued under TMA 1970 S.29 when they had argued that the concept of...
Judicial Review To Quash Partnership Follower Notices and Loan Charge Notices
In the case of R (on the application of Cartref Care Home) [2019] an application was made for a Judicial Review to quash Partnership Follower Notices and Loan Charge Notices on the basis they were not compatible with the Human Rights Act 1998. The application was...
Inheritance Tax Advice during Covid-19
Claim for overpaid inheritance tax due to fall in stock market or property prices a. Drop in property prices following death If someone passes away leaving behind properties, the inheritance tax is normally payable on the market value of the properties within six...