.png)
.png)
VAT registration processing delays affecting clients.
We have two clients who have now been waiting for months to register for VAT.
One application goes back to 1 June 2022, and when we never heard from HMRC, we tried again, online, on 12 July 2022. That still didn’t work so we tried a paper application on 18 August 2022.
Neither I nor my clients have heard from HMRC – this is a process that should take two weeks.
What should my clients do? One was due to be registered for VAT from 1 January 2022 and has little chance of retrospectively claiming it from their clients. I am advising them to pay only the VAT that they are able to recover. After all, it is hardly their fault that they do not have VAT registration in place.
Frankly, it is a disgusting situation. Please advise.
Query 20,047 – Richard Nelson FCCA.
Request to withdraw notices to file.
One of my clients set up a bare trust for his granddaughter in 2012. It is not a simple nominee arrangement – there is a trust deed setting out powers of the trustees – but it appears that the trustees have no discretion, and the assets belong absolutely to the girl.
She will be entitled to wind up the trust and call for the assets when she is 18 in four years’ time. In the meantime, the funds are in open ended investment companies. When the gift was made, there was no requirement to register trusts, but following a suggestion from the investment company, the trustee has this year told HMRC’s trust registration service about the arrangement. Initially it sent him a unique reference number for a non-taxable trust, but now he has received a unique taxpayer reference and notices to file self-assessment returns for the last four years. I think this must be based on a misunderstanding – surely only the beneficiary of a bare trust has an obligation to make returns? The granddaughter is (and has always been) resident in the Netherlands, which suggests to me that she would not have a tax liability in any case.
I have asked HMRC to withdraw the notices to file – am I on strong ground, or is the misunderstanding mine?
Query 20,048 – Daddy Bear.
Hefty price of altruism.
I am in a quandary, made all the more mystifying because I can’t believe no one else has found themselves in it too.
I am a qualified and authorised tax professional of nearly 30 years’ employment experience with various accountancy and legal firms and I have offered to help a friend who is moving abroad for work for a few years, and letting out his UK house. Self-assessment tax returns will be required but I can’t go down the ‘trusted helper’ route because that service isn’t suitable for self assessment and I can’t obtain an agent code in my own name as I need to be in business to create an agent services account. I’ve never traded, nor have any wish to but I have helped many people over the years, although never for any fee or reward.
I also need to be anti-money laundering registered, although as I always undertake annual training for that through my work I have a certificate to verify compliance and I don’t foresee that as a problem. What I do see as a problem is the annual £300 plus charge to be added to the register.
If I don’t help my pal, he is then obliged to pay an(other) authorised agent a hefty sum to do what I was going to do for nothing. What happened to the taxpayer charter and making things easy in ‘providing services that are accessible, quick and easy to use, minimising the cost to the taxpayer’?
I’m all for rooting out the bad boys but this is unfair to altruistic people like me who genuinely want to help others. I can’t be the only tax professional who is happy to share their knowledge and help family and friends free of charge. How do others get round this?
Query 20,049 – Bon Ami.
Declaring the disposal of a property used for holiday lets.
My client owns a house that was being used regularly as a holiday home until the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. It had also qualified as furnished holiday accommodation because it was rented out commercially for the required number of days each year.
Since the beginning of 2020, the property has still been available for holiday lettings, but it was not actively marketed. So, for the past two and a half years it has no longer fallen within the holiday accommodation parameters.
The client now wishes to sell the holiday home and has asked for my advice on the capital gains tax implications. I have two questions. First, does the property qualify as a business asset for the whole period of ownership or will I have to apportion the gain, with the last two years or so not qualifying? Second, must I complete a CGT computation within 60 days of sale or can I simply declare the disposal on the self-assessment tax return as the sale of a business asset?
Query 20,050 – Vacationer.
