“If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again!” – one of those great motivational quotes, never more appropriate than when dealing with HMRC.
Over the years, across our 25+ strong tax team, we have had a great deal of success in handling enquiries, disputes, or drawn out investigations with HMRC. The most recent example concerned two brothers, who had sold some farm land for housing development, making a significant capital gain. Without proper thought or advice from their former accountant, they claimed Entrepreneurs Relief (ER) on the sale of the land, which HMRC opened an investigation into.
Three months into the enquiry, we were asked to take over handling things with HMRC. It’s fair to say that, at that point, HMRC had a very strong view that ER had been falsely claimed and they were not going to permit it – with an additional £1.5m of capital gains tax in their sights. After 14 months (including lockdown delays) and two internal reviews, the case was finally escalated to HMRC’s Solicitors’ Office – the last chance to overturn things without going to a Tribunal Court…..
…fortunately, they came round to our way of thinking. A combination of “detailed technical knowledge & application, HMRC Enquiry handling expertise and sheer perseverance” (client’s words not ours) made for a great result. Happy clients & a happy team (….yes, they do actually enjoy winning a dispute with the taxman!)
To be honest, we prefer and are much better known, for giving proper tax advice in advance of a transaction (like the sale of land, a business or shares). However, if you would like some help with an existing tax dispute, please contact David Nash – (01788) 539000 or [email protected].