HMRC Pending Statutory Demand & Bankruptcy - Dont know where to turn

[unclebulgaria67]

Not my area of knowledge.

if HMRC had a deal with your employer about these expenses,

then that employer has already benefitted from your expenses

and now that HMRC have excluded you from claiming these,

you should have a basis for suing the employers ?

 

Do you have evidence of contacting your employer about these expenses issues and you including them in tax returns to HMRC ?

 

Have you contacted your local MP to see if they can help in regard to HMRC conduct ?

Can they intervene on your behalf with a complaint, so that there is a pause in proceedings, enabling you to seek advive and take necessary actions ?

[unclebulgaria67]

Suggest you contact your MP's office today to get a complaint started about the conduct of HMRC and ask that they try to intervene on your behalf to obtain breathing space so you can deal with this complicated issue.

 

If it were me, i would also be contacting the Human Resources director of the company worked for, with full details of the problem with HMRC and the expenses.

 

Perhaps between the company, HMRC and yourself, this can be resolved.

 

Don't start threatening the company with a court claim, as they might then not be as helpful.

You need them on your side, to help with the HMRC.

[unclebulgaria67]

If you read Civil Service publications, they always say how they like to manage a quality customer service, how they are fair in their dealings with people etc.

 

Have you sent a Data Protection Subject Access Request to HMRC to get hold of all information ?

 

If you check HMRC info on such requests, they will tell you where to send these

 

. It is free to make such requests to them, so you might as well.

 

Mark it urgent and detail all the information you want.

[unclebulgaria67]

All your tax records for the relevant period.

 

All records relating to the current issue including any taped recording of your meeting. There will be a full record of your meeting with HMRC and possibly a digital recording of the conversation. Also the HMRC section that calculated the amount will have a file full of information including how it was calculated.

 

In regard to your MP, you must state clearly what your complaint is. They need to understand the gravity of the situation and what help you are seeking.

[unclebulgaria67]

Thanks for all your help so far I have emailed my MP and I will get my subject access request done.

 

I am going to be getting the stat demand through any day

 

 

was kind of hoping I would get some advise as to who I should go and see,

who can I turn to for help as at the moment

 

 

everything just seems to be spiralling out of control

are there any other forums any one would recommend.

 

Kind Regards R

 

Expect there are specialist Solicitors out there who deal with these issues, but at a cost. No doubt the Law Society search facility will list Solicitors that deal with tax issues in your area.

 

If you receive a statutory demand you can apply to your nearest county court to set it aside within 18 days of receipt. The SD is just issued by a creditor and does not touch a court until an application is made to set it aside or the creditor applies for hankruptcy. If you did not successfully set it aside, i believe the creditor has 6 months to apply for bankruptcy.

 

The other issue which has just come to my mind, is what advice did you receive from any accountant and/or your employers when you added these business expenses to your tax returns ? Surely a conversation would have taken place about this. And why did HMRC not realise at an earlier stage that there was an issue ?

[unclebulgaria67]

Thank you UB,

 

When I get the SD on what grounds should I try and get it set aside should it be because I have taken advice and I believe that I have been unfairly treated by the HMRC in terms of communication from different departments and I am waiting for more information from the HMRC re Subject Access Request.

 

KR R

 

 

IF you get the SD, it will state their particulars of claim against you and the reasons for set aside would be based on disputing what they have said. For example, what evidence is there that HMRC had any arrangement with the employers in regard to expense claims and they should not be included wifhin any tax return. Also you might dispute that you owe the amount stated, as HMRC have not allowed you any time to investigate the expense issues with your former employet.

 

Where an tax accountant would be extremely helpful is in knowing all of the rules in regard to these issues. But they would want to be supplied with all of the information.

 

Perhaps HB is correct, that an accountant would be better placed than a Solicitors in the first instance and if you need legal help later, they will probably have a Solicitors they normally use to help their clients.

 

Nb. Just because they mentioned an SD/Bankruptcy does not mean that they would proceed with this any time soon. You may have plenty of time to resolve this.

[unclebulgaria67]

I am curious what happened in regard to relations between you and this employer when they did not pay your expenses that you incurred while working for them. When i had to incur expenses on my personal credit card while travelling on behalf of my employers, i had to pass them the receipt information and they would normally process it within a week. If i were in the situation, where i was incurring expenses and not getting them paid, then i would be in touch with someone senior to get it sorted out urgently.

 

Perhaps you need to speak to a tax accountant now, so they can explain the process and you follow what they ask you to do. I would think they will need all the records you can get your hands on, including HMRC and your former employers. Your former employers must still have files/spreadsheets with all of the paperwork you provided them with.

[unclebulgaria67]

Good Morning All,

 

I am not having much luck at all, I have called 3 accountants now and each two of them have said that they cannot help as they believe it has gone to far down the line and I should of contacted them from the beginning and one of them even said that I should except the fact that I am going to be made bankrupt and deal with it, the other one said that I should be speaking to a solicitor not a tax advisor because of the impending SD. Its knocked me back to be honest I know its sounds silly but just plucking up the courage to call them was hard and then to get this response was not what I needed. Can you make any recommendations or are you not aloud to ? I understand if this is the case.

 

KR R

 

All you can do at the moment, is get hold of all information that you don't have e.g HMRC subject access request, ask your employers for everything on file.

 

Whichever professional you manage to get to help you, is going to want all the information.

 

If you read back, i did immediately think of a Solicitors that deals with tax issues, because it had got to the stage where HMRC had threatened you with bankruptcy. For an accountant to go through all of your information from scratch without having dealt with you previously is a bit daunting. I should imagine most accountants already have clients they are dealing with over a long period and to take on a new client in your position might be very time consuming.

 

What you need at the moment is breathing space so you have a chance of getting hold of all information and can put it all in chronological order, so that a professional dealing with tax issues can easily work through it. You might then be able to successfully set aside any SD and try to come to an arrangement with HMRC on what you definitely owe. If your former employers do owe you these unpaid expenses, you can then start litigation against them. The point in raising a complaint via your MP about HMRC handling of your case, was to hopefully gain the breathing space you need. If they managed to put matters on hold for a couple of months, then you have time to deal with the situation.

[unclebulgaria67]

Hi Reval,

 

Continue the search for a firm that'll take on your case and help you appeal on the basis that you didn't know what you were agreeing to, with no professional advice at the time.

 

Sorry but I don't agree with UncleB's post #36 .

 

I see no point in getting info from your employer as this is just not relevant to your case.

 

I would focus on finding a tax specialist to assist - keep at it and you should find the help you need.

 

 

Why do you think employers info is irrelevent ? According to OP, they had correspondence with their employers about expenses they incurred and wanted to be refunded ? The OP mentions that this employer was known not to always pay these expenses ( HMRC were aware apparently) and HMRC had a deal with the employers, so employees did not need to include such expenses in their tax returns ?

 

The OP is being threatened with bankruptcy by HMRC for a six figure amount and may at some stage need to sue his employer to recover expenses incurred in their employment. I am therefore baffled why the OP does not need info from his employers that he does not currently have. It might be useful in dealing with HMRC and later in suing his formee employers.