Philip Fisher, writing for AccountingWEB (of which I was once an editor), has reported this morning that:
On 4 April HMRC announced that EU State Aid had not been renewed for the EMI share scheme, which means that no EMI share options issued from 7 April 2018 onwards will qualify for tax relief.
This does not bode well for the UK's attempts to leave the EU smoothly. Compared with the administrative nightmare of changing most of this country's legislation, the need to renew EU State Aid approval for the EMI scheme would be a mere drop in the ocean.
Bizarrely, we are informed by Employment-related securities bulletin No 27 (April 2018) that our legislators have failed to complete this relatively simple task by the deadline of 6 April 2018, on which the old approval expires.
You can view this at all sorts of levels. As someone who is not much bothered about EMI I will not make the fuss many accountants might on that issue. But I can make considerable fuss at three other levels.
The first is the incompetence of HMRC in letting this happen without notice. That is not what tax certainty requires.
Second, there is the issue of the EU. If we cannot get such things right now, what will happen as the chaos of Brexit descends?
Third, what does this say about the management resources available top HMRC? In the clearest way possible it is saying that they are inadequate.
The signs are deeply worrying. HMRC is descending into chaos and I see little chance of it coming out again for a long time to come.
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“…The signs are deeply worrying. HMRC is descending into chaos ….”
Who cares ?
I know you do, Richard, but who else cares.
The idea of HMRC in chaos will be very appealing to many. And it hardly looks like an accidental or unavoidable condition.
I would have thought that any sane person would care FFS – or do you think we will be happy to be paying too much / too little tax, happy to know that Amazon / Google etc avoid paying any tax? and that the whole of Government is descending into chaos. Perhaps you subscribe to the chaos theory- from which you can reclaim your promised land?
AliB says:
“I would have thought that any sane person would care FFS …”
Indeed. So would I.
So what are we looking at ? A profound shortage of ‘sane persons’ or something else ?
DWP too. We have a government with no interest in providing for the electorate, it seems.
Yes Bill, but the Govt expects you to suspend your life waiting for a DWP judgement. We have been waiting over two years for a determination from DWP.
Tony_B says:
“Yes Bill, but the Govt expects you to suspend your life waiting for a DWP judgement. ”
The DWP is a national disgrace.
I say that fully aware that many, perhaps most, of the frontline staff are doing the best they can, and are allowed, to do. And also, I would say that I have no criticism of the manner in which I, personally, have been treated by local DWP staff.
You will have seen ‘I Daniel Blake’ I presume. I think rather more people should.
I look forward to the day when, having introduced UBI for all adults and a Citizens Pension equivalent for pensioners, it will be possible to abolish the DWP completely.
That will not be possible
Disability and rent issues will still exist
When you make enormous cuts to staffing and expect those left to do what was once done by thousands more then chaos is to be expected.
Of course we should care. Small local businesses are being asked the impossible by an out of touch with reality HMRC. How they stay afloat is beyond me. Sheer courage and commitment to those that depend on them. My heart weeps when I sit down with them as a potential city councillor here in Sheffield. It must be the same across the country.
Any other Department or Ministry, I’d view this as ‘softening up for privatisation’.
Is there already a ‘revolving door’ of staff secondments and outsourcing functions that would make this step unnecessary?
If not, I would reiterate an earlier suggestion, that we are heading for a three-tier tax administration: Cayman Islands service for billion-dollar tax avoidance schemes, ‘business class’ service if you pay to have your taxes done by HMRC’s owners, and ‘Soviet Union’ for the ordinary citizen.
I keep hearing discussion of handing over HMRC to the Big 4 now….
I believe it was the Romans who were keen on tax farming – sounds as if the Tories have picked up this daft idea & dusted it off.
Would any of the big 4 actually want it though? The margin on tax compliance work is extremely low, I doubt the roi on taking over HMRC given the complete aggro it involved would make it worth it frankly.
“Small local businesses are being asked the impossible by an out of touch with reality HMRC. How they stay afloat is beyond me”
Sound tax planning helps.
As I always say, if you aren’t breaking the law you are obeying the law.
Are you sure?
“Are you sure?”
I’m not convinced that bending the law so completely out of shape as to make it ineffective constitutes ‘obeying ‘ it.
Subverting sounds a better description.