Advice when accountants not submitted SA

lizada

My husband worked on a Self employed basis with an agency and was paid through an umbrella firm who was supposed to submit returns, he left in October 2012 and went on to PAYE. We are now getting letter from HMRC to say that no returns where submitted for 2011-2012 and the fine is now up to £440 and growing. I have tried and tried to get PML to submit the returns and told them the fines are down to them after all they where paid to do the job but I am getting nowhere. I am now waiting for them to give me the address of their proffesional body so that I can file a formal complaint but again all I get "the accountants are dealing with it" I am getting really worried because the fine is going up £10 a day and we do not have that kind of money.

Please any advice of where I go from here would be appreciated.

Thanks

Pennywise

Are they actually qualified/regulated at all? If not, they won't have a professional body. Accountancy isn't a regulated/protected profession so anyone can set up an accountancy practice and call themselves an accountant. If they're not qualified/regulated, you're wasting your time asking them and your recourse will be via trading standards and/or the courts.

As the fines are rising at £10 per day, you may be better to submit the returns yourself to at least stop the fines getting any bigger. The fines are your liability unfortunately and HMRC will expect you to pay them. You "may" then be able to make a court claim to your accountants to recover the fines, but you are required to minimise your losses otherwise the courts may not order full reimbursement.

UK tax law doesn't allow you to "abdicate" your personal tax filing obligations and you remain personally responsible. You can use an accountant to help you with your tax returns, but ultimately, you have to keep on top of things yourself. You'll have received numerous letters and forms from HMRC chasing the returns with warnings of fines etc - hindsight is a wonderful thing, but perhaps you should have been chasing the accountants earlier.

lizada

Thanks for reply I have been chasing them since the first letter and they said they would sort it. Will have to get on to tax office and see what they say about maybe giving us time to pay while I get the paperwork and details from PML.

zygurat789

The PML Accounting Services company I found using Google didn't claim, as far as I could see, to be members of a professional accounting body and they appeared to deal with limited companies, presumably an IR35 outfit. I saw no
mention of self employed but I only glanced at it briefly.

agrinnall

I agree with zygurat that the information provided by PML seems to be at odds with what the OP describes, they specifically state:

PML do not operate composite or umbrella companies,we only provide Accounting and Taxation advice to clients wishing to operate their own companies.

It's possible they may have moved out of the Umbrella business since the OP was with them, and they do say that Personal Tax Return is included in their services (although that's dependent on the relevant information being provided to them by 31st July following the end of the tax year - was it?).

http://pmlaccounting.com/downloads/PML_Welcome_Pack.pdf

Cook_County

This is an excellent lesson why you should only choose a qualified accountant or tax adviser.

I suggest an early case in the small claims court against the alleged company as well.