Don’t rely on the HMRC helpline
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
You would think that a ‘helpline’ is there to provide help. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, especially one provided by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). Imagine you have a technical query regarding your business tax affairs and phone one of the helplines provided by HMRC. You would like help on how to treat certain transactions for tax purposes.
You provide all the facts and think that you can completely rely on the answer provided. When you find out that the advice given by HMRC was wrong and that your business now owes more than £100,000 in tax, you may feel a little angry. Perhaps you even consider going to court.
You may be surprised to learn that, even if you had proof of the advice that the HMRC helpline gave you, you would still lose the case. This is exactly what happened to one taxpayer this year. The taxpayer was told that the helplines provided by HM Revenue & Customs are there merely to provide general advice rather than specific advice on which to rely.
Tags: hmrc
August 6th, 2009 at 10:29 am
Andy – I couldn’t agree more! Its amazing how many people out there say
“Oh I called the tax office to check and they said………..” Which we all know is usually wrong!
I normally ask my clients the question “who do you pay for advice – us or HMRC?”
I still know a number of HMRC staff and they admit advice given is quite often incorrect.