Correspondence from readers on topical subjects.
Public service
I refer to Andrew Hubbard’s comments in ‘Difference between assistance and advice’ (Taxation 8 June 2017). I would agree that some HMRC officers have a genuine public service attitude but sadly they are becoming harder to find. Instead we are running into objective- and target-driven individuals who are prepared to use pretty much any tactic to maximise tax collections rather than do the job they are meant to do namely to administer the tax system.
Graham Webber director WTT Consulting Ltd.
Employee benefit trusts
The replies to the query ‘On the way out’ (Taxation 18 May 2017) refer to the inheritance tax liabilities under IHTA 1984 s 72 and HMRC’s views on these.
HMRC’s Inheritance Tax Manual at IHTM42986 uses the incorrect phrase ‘subject to income tax’. That wording does not appear anywhere in the legislation. Nevertheless HMRC appears...
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