You know I sometimes think that HMRC want to make things difficult – just for the sake of them.
I’m involved in a case that’s being pursued by their Insolvency Department in Worthing. We have actually disputed the bankruptcy petition issued and in the normal way that an agreement over an adjournment would be quite straightforward.
However, we have a chap who is destined to reach the pinnacle of the most detested tax man in the country by just refusing anything of the sort. We had to instruct Counsel, Counsel went before the registrar in the High Court and easily obtained the adjournment – in fact the registrar was slightly critical of HMRC saying that it was quite natural that a tax payer would want to know exactly what he owed to HMRC and he was entitled to ask those questions and have them answered – which so far HMRC have failed to do.
The HMRC is full or Civil Servants, civil some of them ain’t, servants some of them ain’t. When will they realise that the public pay their salaries through taxes and alright, there are some people who don’t want to pay their taxes and they have to pursue them but not everybody seeks to avoid their tax liabilities.
Sometimes, especially through professional advisors, it is necessary to question HMRC’s figures especially in view of the amount of diabolical faux pas they’ve made over the last few years.