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A company director who at one stage was looking at potential HMRC fines of more than £1 million and defending himself against claims of fraud has good reason to celebrate the expertise of Harwood Hutton.
The director contacted us to see if we could help him fight off an enquiry into his company’s PAYE and Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) affairs. He was not confident his accountant had the required skills and he had heard good things about our tax knowledge.
It soon became apparent his accountant was indeed out of his depth and that problems had been building up over a long time.
As a result of its initial investigation, HMRC raised assessments totalling more than £500,000 payable by the company in respect of unpaid taxes over the previous four years. It also indicated there were likely to be further penalties of roughly the same amount, with interest on top.
Once we were appointed, we acted quickly to fully investigate the circumstances of HMRC’s assessments to see if we could mitigate the liability and protect the director from action against him personally.
We produced a detailed letter and a dossier comprising more than 100 pages of supporting evidence to refute many of the amounts being assessed by HMRC and to defend the director in respect of any forthcoming accusation of fraud.
As a result of the detailed response and follow-up negotiations with HMRC, Harwood Hutton helped the client settle at a much lower liability of just over £130,000 (inclusive of the interest) and a suspension of all penalties. Significantly, no accusations of fraud were levied.
For more information about Harwood Hutton’s tax expertise call 01494 739500
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