Accountant Tax Investigation Service

dealsearcher

There are some people who buy any insurance they are offered. There are others who see that insurance is a matter of risk. Sometimes it is better to take the risk of not being insured because your risk of having something go wrong is so low. It is pointless having travel insurance if you never travel.

On the other hand car insurance is a legal requirement and therefore there is no choice, although fully comprehensive is a choice compared to third party only. A couple of years ago I had a rock thrown at the side of my car. The damage caused would not have cost more than the £200 excess on the policy. It was not worth claiming for. So was it worth having fully comprehensive insurance? Probably, because that would cover the high cost of a write off.

In this case my risk is very low. Mine would only be looked at if HMRC thought they weren't getting all of the information from the accountant. Even if I were to be investigated I have all of the documentary evidence which I could supply directly to HMRC, as has my accountant. There is some risk but mine is much lower than others who both of you have cited.

chrismac1

I agree. My house is insured and my car is insured. I have PPI which is compulsory to remain a qualified accountant. And that's it.

Insurance is a zero sum game. The more profitable the insurance policy is for the insurer, the worse is the deal for the consumer. So my wife now knows better than to bother asking me if I want to pay for extra breakdown cover on electricals - unless I thought I was going to be at least twice as hard a user of that item as the average, my view is the insurance company knows a whole lot more about the likely reliablity of that item than I do.

longforgotten

Dealsearcher it is entirely up to you as to whether you buy this insurance or not.

The accountancy firm I work for send the same offer to all our clients, knowing full well some clients need the insurance more than others. It would be wrong however not to provide this service to every client regardless of risk. As I understand it the insurance is provided by an insurance company to cover the cost of any time we should spend on an investigation. As charge out rates within the company can be anything from £40 to £150 per hour I'm guessing your insurance at £72 incl. VAT is not bad.

HMRC can look into anything and everything if they chose to do so, down to how much you spend at the supermarket. Time spent sorting things out with HMRC can be horrendous. You sound as though you are happy to handle any HMRC enquiry yourself so you will not need the help of your accountant. That's great but not everyone has the time, patience and ability so they buy insurance.