The current state of the British economy has created a new era for British tax compliance, with HMRC given extensive powers and encouraged to pursue noncomplyingtax returns more rigorously and prosecute more readily.

HMRC have almost unlimited rights of entry into business premises to uncover wrongdoing and have established apenalty structure based on subjective ‘reasonable care’ clauses. The penalties can be complicated and severely burdensome, with many tax experts warning that an increasingly cash strapped Revenue will drag more innocent taxpayers into lengthy investigations.

At times like these it’s good to have professionals on your side, who understand your business and its dealingsand how to deal with HMRC and its investigations.

What does our scheme offer?

Our scheme covers the equivalent of up to £100,000 of professional costs per incident resulting from HMRC investigations or disputes for both full and aspect enquiries, pre-disputes, reviews,compliance checks, or interventions. Importantly this ensures we can dedicate all of the time and resources we need to represent you to the fullest extent, without you having to worry about the fees.

And you will be safe in the knowledge that you’re dealing with your own accountants, rather than strangers who don’t know you or your business and certainly don’t have your best interests at heart. Our scheme has been set up for us by CCH Fee Protection, the UK market leader in fee protection, with over 20 years of experience.

The CCH Business Support Helpline for businesses

We offer access for companies, partnerships, and sole traders to the market leading telephone advice line manned by CCH experts. This offers access to advice in the following areas:

Employment & personnel issues, such as disciplining an employee, dismissal, and gross misconduct.

Health & Safety issues, such as reporting an accident and hazardous substances.

Commercial legal issues, such as landlord and tenancy, company law and copyright and patent.

A new approach

HMRC now operate an information led approach to target non-compliant tax returns. This means that if you are selected, it’s for a reason - and you can expect to receive a penalty, as well as pay back what they estimate you owe.

And using the more efficient ‘Aspect Enquiry’ – enquiries into one or more aspects of a tax return – HMRC are able to target a greater number of taxpayers than before.

With the consequences and penalties associated with HMRC enquiries worsening (HMRC are now naming and shaming tax evaders), we believe that our protection scheme offers real peace of mind for you, knowing you havethe cost of professional fees covered. We can focus our time and effort entirely on your investigation – and you can stop worrying about the expense and get back to running your business.

We recommend all our business clients join our Fee Protection scheme; it might just be the best decision you ever made.

Directors and Partnerscover

Investigations into the tax return of the directors and partners of a business covered by our scheme are also included, provided that we act as the tax return agents for the individuals concerned. The tax return must be a personal, non-business return, which should not include any self-employment pages and gross annual rental income (per individual) must not exceed £50,000. If you fall outside of these criteria, separate cover is available – all you have to do is ask.