CIS penalties

I did not know whether to laugh or cry when my client brought in a stack of envelopes to my office this morning issued by the local tax office.

There were 15 separate envelopes containing 37 separate 'Notification of Amended Charge'.

The story is that the client formed his limited company over a year ago and took the precaution of opening a PAYE scheme for it and of course was asked whether he would be using subcontractors which he confirmed.

However he did not start trading until 1 December 2007 and so did not complete any monthly returns. Of course no penalties were raised until the initial six-month period of grace was over but then he received backdated penalties for every month up to and including that ending on 5 December 2007.

Fortunately the tax office accepted my appeal on his behalf that...