Equitable liability: an example

I refer to your article in Taxation titled Inequitable liability. We wholeheartedly agree with your comments and have signed the e-petition.

We have had numerous cases of the type to which you refer.

One particularly sad case was a minister of religion who had a lot of issues outside of dealing with ‘brown envelopes’.

He let a few years’ tax returns go by without filing. His liability per year would have been approx £6 000. HMRC imposed assessments of between £15 000 and £20 000 per year to force compliance.

Unfortunately it did not work and on the day HMRC issued bankruptcy proceedings our client committed suicide.

Eventually we got the affairs sorted and proceedings lifted but it was too little too late.

Four partner firm

Editorial note

Readers might want to imagine how it would feel to have a client who came to you feeling suicidal...