Feedback - issue 4125

Correspondence from readers on topical subjects

Further agonies — I

I act for a company which has been in a long-running dispute about corporation tax on a particular receipt. As a side issue the Inspector has questioned the entitlement of the company to small companies rate relief for the year in which the receipt arose. At that time the company was owned 51% by a Nigerian businessman who has now sold his interest and 40% by the managing director whose death led to the Nigerian selling out. It seems that the company's auditors never asked whether the controlling shareholder also controlled any other businesses so the small companies rate was claimed by default.

The Inspector has now asked about those holdings. He carried out an Internet search which threw up the Nigerian's name in connection with a group of companies in that country — nothing more...