Threatening letters from HMRC

emjharts

My Husband is a limited company and due to not getting paid by his current clients on time he has not been able to pay all of his Corporation Tax - he had saved up the amount but due to his clients not paying him we have had to live on that money over the past few months.
We had our accountant call them and set up a payment plan but they keep sending letters saying that they will be sending people to our home to take our business belongings! - this amounts to two laptops, a monitor and a scanner in the tiny room that my husband works from! What is going on here? they said they would take 2 months to decide whether the payment plan is OK but in the meantime they are still sending these threatening letters!
Hopefully within 2 months we will have paid it all off anyway but in the meantime I am scared whenever I hear the doorbell. Are they really going to do this or are they just trying to scare us?

Meeper

Why don't you ring them on the number stated on the letters and ask them? It may be a case of two departments not talking to each other internally. Explain what you have written here and all should be well, if your accountant has agreed a plan with them.

chrismac1

I think you could find the following summary of the A K Construction tribunal case interesting:

Some of the payments AK Construction made to HMRC were late which meant they failed the compliance test, despite that he was unable to pay because of cash flow difficulties. Judge John Walters ruled in favour of AK Construction saying that “the appellant had done all that he could to avoid this problem” and that was a reasonable excuse. Though HM Revenue & Customs still disagree with cash flow being a reasonable excuse, it depends on the tribunal judge you find yourself before.

Cook_County

emjharts wrote: »

My Husband is a limited company

I would have loved to have been at your wedding!

I assume you mean your husband is a majority shareholder in a company. Doubtless he is also a director. I am unclear why the company would choose not to pay it's liabilities to HMRC - he should urgently speak with the company's accountant and take professional advice.

Mikeyorks

chrismac1 wrote: »

Though HM Revenue & Customs still disagree with cash flow being a reasonable excuse, it depends on the tribunal judge you find yourself before.

For 'unpaid arrears of Corporation Tax' ........ exactly which tribunal do you consider operates in that area?

BoGoF

Mikeyorks wrote: »

For 'unpaid arrears of Corporation Tax' ........ exactly which tribunal do you consider operates in that area?

We both know there is none. It's just a certain individuals obsession with quoting Tribunal cases that in no way assist the OP.

emjharts

Cook_County wrote: »

I would have loved to have been at your wedding!

Whats that got to do with things?!!!

chrismac1

Slow pay clients - cash flow problems - slow pay HMRC - A K Tribunal guy says that is reasonable. Meanwhile forget about these scary letters in terms of doorbell bailiffs, you are a long way away from that. Should anyone call on you puporting to be HMRC ask to see some ID. I had a client who had HMRC credit control call on her and not only did they fail to produce ID, after a one hour meeting they took 5 minutes to give us an address, trying everything possible to refuse to give us one. No ID and all they wanted to leave us with was a name and a mobile, is this a 21st Century tax system or is Del Boy Trotter running the show?

Should you make any sort of offer, or indeed say anything nicer than "go away", put it in writing. If it gets to a higher authority than HMRC then a key question to ask is whether you have behaved as a reasonable taxpayer. In my case my client has a house on the market with £50k equity and we have put it in writing the proceeds will go to her £20k or so tax bills. Del Boy said "It could easily take 3 or 4 months to sell", thanks for teaching Granny to suck eggs, Del. But we've put that in writing and if we get to a Tribunal I am confident my client has behaved reasonably. The more evidence you can put together at each stage to show your reasonableness the better.

BoGoF

So if you would like to answer the question, what tribunal can you go to about being pursued by HMRC over a debt.

The tribunal you refer to was over a CIS gross payment status withdrawal, a decision which can be appealed.

BoGoF

@ emjharts, who told you they would take 2 months to agree to your payment plan, your accountants or HMRC?

Mikeyorks

emjharts wrote: »

Hopefully within 2 months we will have paid it all off anyway but in the meantime I am scared whenever I hear the doorbell. Are they really going to do this or are they just trying to scare us?

Part of their job is to recover outstanding tax - so, yes, they are intent on that. But (you don't state the CT due date) if the '2 months' is within reasonable proximity to the due date then they will accept that. Just give them a ring on the number on the letter(s) - or ask your accountant to do so - and put it to bed. It does not take 2 months to agree a rational payment plan.

Unfortunately you're getting the usual poor advice from someone who seems to think Tribunals rule the world ...... I would ignore it, as HMRC debt pursuit is not governed by any Tribunal.