HMRC Tax insurance for ltd company

stevetuk

Our accountant has sent us a letter promoting their tax insurance scheme to cover any HMRC investigation etc.
I'm aware I'll have to check to see if it covers enquiries, visits, letters etc before it ever got to the point of an investigation (I suspect not).


The quoted annual premium is a whopping £185.


I was wondering if it's possible to obtain this sort of insurance direct from an insurer or is it only through my own accountant? Where would I obtain quotes?


TIA!

Merlin139

Have you tried googling it? Does the company who provides business insurance for you not offer it?

The premium would be a chargeable expense to your business so does it matter that its £185?

stevetuk

Yes, I've tried Googling it - I can only find brokers who sell to accountancy firms, not direct to companies.


Our business insurance is specialist to our industry - tax insurance is not included and they do not offer that as an option.


Yes, it would be a chargeable expense to the business but why would I want my business to pay more than it should (potentially)?

Pennywise

Trouble with random insurance policies is that most don't cover the time of your own accountant. They use their own specialists, who obviously won't know you nor your business, so you'll have to spend time explaining your business, your records, etc to someone else. If they require anything from your own accountant, your own accountant will probably charge you for their time in providing information to the insurance specialist accountant. At least with your own accountants' recommended scheme, they already know you, they know your records, etc., so it would be more seemless and less time wasting inconvenience for you.

00ec25

if it helps you benchmark, we charge our clients £150 + VAT (so £180 gross) for tax investigation insurance via Abbey Tax
of course our type of client may be different to your type of business...

Pennywise

Our benchmark for ltd co coverage would be around £100 (no VAT to add), but our practice scheme is reduced premium because of our typical client profile, i.e. low risk very small businesses, no statutory audits, no charities/solicitor clients etc. Each practice is "risk assessed" on their client profile (at least for the insurers we use), so "per client" premiums can be lower for a low risk practice and a lot higher for a high risk practice with bigger/complicated clients. So if you're a small fish in a big pond, your insurance could be higher than it needs to be. But, as per figures on this thread, it's only about £80 difference, so hardly worth changing accountants for is it?

stevetuk

Thanks for the replies - looks like going with our accountant is the best bet and that the price isn't all that different from what is 'standard'. I really appreciate the advice everyone, thank you

greyteam1959

I went through this a few years ago.
I might be wrong but I think your Home Insurance Legal Cover ( if you have it ) may cover for Tax Investigations.
HTH

Pennywise

greyteam1959 wrote: »

I went through this a few years ago.
I might be wrong but I think your Home Insurance Legal Cover ( if you have it ) may cover for Tax Investigations.
HTH

The OP is running a limited company - home insurance policies usually only cover the personal tax affairs of the homeowner, so won't extend to the limited company (nor will it extend to other business aspects such as VAT or payroll enquiries), so not really appropriate in this case.

rhysadams

I've paid for this insurance every year and 1 year I had to use it, it covered me for absolutely everything and was well worth the money paid out.