Taxation logo taxation mission text

Since 1927 the leading authority on tax law, practice and administration

Red letter day?

28 July 2005 / David Smith
Issue: 4018 / Categories: Comment & Analysis , IR35 , Employees , Income Tax
DAVID SMITH LLB, FTII of Accountax Consulting Ltd considers HMRC's latest letter to the construction industry and notes an important point on validity of assessments.

Both last year and again more recently HMRC have been sending out letters to tens of thousands of contractors and subcontractors in the construction industry. These letters are concerned with the employment status of the workers engaged and give the impression to the recipients that the game is up. Most practitioners if not all will have clients who have received such missives. Should they and their clients be worried? What action should they take?
The first thing to note is that all such letters are computer generated and have not actually come from a person at all. None of the letters is signed although it is good to see that in this year's version of the letter HMRC appreciate the difference between 'yours sincerely' and 'yours faithfully' and last year's letters were not even dated. The current batch of letters have a month...

If you or your firm subscribes to Taxation.co.uk, please click the login box below:

If you are not a subscriber but are a registered user or have a free trial, please enter your details in the following boxes:

Alternatively, you can register free of charge to read a limited amount of subscriber content per month.
Once you have registered, you will receive an email directing you back to read this item in full.

Please reach out to customer services at +44 (0) 330 161 1234 or 'customer.services@lexisnexis.co.uk' for further assistance.

back to top icon