Cpt. Spavil
Well-known member
- Mar 9, 2008
- 1,071
Which authority was making the payments?
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[News] Bunglefool Sunak and the MASSIVE fraud?
- Thread starter LlcoolJ
- Start date
Pavilionaire
Well-known member
- Jul 7, 2003
- 30,582
I place accountants in the same group as lawyers and estate agents
Quite a while ago I wanted to set up a limited company and was recommended that Carpenter Box in Worthing would be useful. "That'll be £250 - obviously plus VAT - sir". Yeah, OK - eff off. I've since set up a number of limited companies all for the Companies House charge !
I am an accountant and have spent most of the last 2 days calculating and preparing furlough claims for clients. This is for a scheme that was supposed to have ended on 31st October 2020. I can ill-afford the lost time I'm spending on the new scheme as I have many Self-Assessment Tax Returns that must be filed by 31st January 2021, but this month - the 8th for furlough claims - I've noticed a new desperation for the cash, so I've prioritised that and will spend the weekend catching up with the Tax Returns.
I dread next month - we've already had our first enquiry as to whether they can "flexibly furlough" from 18th - 31st December. I'm guessing many more will be thinking the same thing as they enjoy Christmas as best they can.
As for Carpenter Box - was this £250 + VAT simply for company formation (in which case it's excessive, unless it's for a company with multiple share classes), or did they give you advice on how best to structure your company, prepare share certificates and first Minutes, create VAT / PAYE / Corporation tax schemes and sort registration for electronic filing (in which case £250 + VAT is reasonable). I've never simply formed a company and billed for it as there is always set-up work to do.
Fair enough .... there was a reason I put the emoji I did
What on earth is "flexibly furlough" - surely either staff are on furlough or they aren't ?
The CB bill was literally to provide a company name, memorandum and articles of association and register the company for two directors and no employees. Ever since I've set up my own Ltd companies and done the yearly accounts.
Mr Bridger
Sound of the suburbs
I’ve got a limit company and could therefor not fulrlough myself, so I was only getting £500ish job retention, but our local council was given
£££millions to support local businesses if they could prove the drop in income during March , April , May.
I submitted my bank statements, and they duly obliged with £5k straight into my bank account....... Which was nice.
£££millions to support local businesses if they could prove the drop in income during March , April , May.
I submitted my bank statements, and they duly obliged with £5k straight into my bank account....... Which was nice.
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- #45
Pavilionaire
Well-known member
- Jul 7, 2003
- 30,582
Fair enough .... there was a reason I put the emoji I did
What on earth is "flexibly furlough" - surely either staff are on furlough or they aren't ?
The CB bill was literally to provide a company name, memorandum and articles of association and register the company for two directors and no employees. Ever since I've set up my own Ltd companies and done the yearly accounts.
Flexible furlough started in July to give employers the ability to recall employees when there was work and to furlough when there wasn't. Plenty of employers are flexibly furloughing, so it is now typical when, say, businesses are at 50% of activity to have employees in to work half the time, furloughed the other half.
This means employees get 90% of salary for working half the time, so you can see the huge potential for this to be exploited by employers over Christmas. And it's the accountants - in the main - that will have to scrutinise, calculate and claim during an already busy period - in a holiday period, with no staff in the office.
And given many of my clients are in the 3 million who have fallen through Rishi's cracks you can't blame those people for wanting to get what they can, especially as the self-employed throughout have been able to earn what they can whilst having a guaranteed amount paid to them every quarter of more than 3/4 of 2018/19 profits. Those sole traders who have seen a modest drop in 20/21 sales but who are eligible to claim the SEISS grant could see their total income increasing by 50% - 60% this year.
I don't think HMRC are quite the force to be reckoned with that they used to be. They used to be feared and ruthless and even pursued the totally innocent with over zealous determination. Now they hardly seem bothered about anything.
I reported a former employer five years ago who had made false wage payment submissions (FPS and RTI) using my name. HMRC never responded to my repeated reports each time saying they'd respond within fifteen days but never did. In the end I recently wrote to HMRC's Chief Executive telling him I'm going to withold all further self assessment returns as I'm not prepared to provide them with my data when they have knowingly processed false information in my name and done nothing about it. He obviously passed it on because I got the usual "we'll respond within 15 working days" response. The fiifteen day deadline passed again a couple of days ago.
- May 8, 2018
- 9,231
Action Fraud for the consumer
I happen to know the FIU have been inundated with lines of enquiry
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Live by the sea
Well-known member
- Oct 21, 2016
- 4,718
Doesn’t probably bother Sunak if he ends up getting sacked as his wife has shares worth over £400 million !
Wrong-Direction
Well-known member
- Mar 10, 2013
- 13,422
FatSuperman
Well-known member
- Feb 25, 2016
- 2,830
Those loopholes are very well regarded by the well-connected, and the government and treasury will never, ever look to close most of them. Only where regular people can get involved will they be closed and hopefully backdated. If regular people lose their houses, well, maybe they shouldn't have used the loophole (or more realistically, had better tax / legal teams)
nicko31
Well-known member
Furlough scheme that allowed professional fraudsters to steal £4.3bn
Another epic fail
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...3bn-in-covid-payments-lost-to-fraud-dfkxt5fr7
Another epic fail
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...3bn-in-covid-payments-lost-to-fraud-dfkxt5fr7
5.2bn on the job retention scheme alone.
HMRC paid out billions to fraudsters whilst denying genuine small businesses relief.
(For those that care, small owner-managed businesses, many in existence for years, who operated an "annual PAYE scheme" had to make their annual PAYE return by 19 March to qualify under the JRS. But HMRC didn't bother to notify that requirement to businesses until the middle of April. I tried to raise the issue through Loughton but he was beyond hopeless but then he was never going to rock the boat and lose out on a ministerial position or a seat in the Lords)
You could get a couple of hospitals built, equipped and fully kitted out for the money the government, ably aided and abetted by HMRC, gave away to the fraudsters.
nicko31
Well-known member
A generation will be paying for their serial incompetence, just crap governance
If the UK were a PLC we'd be kicked out of the FTSE 100
- May 8, 2018
- 9,231
They were warned repeatedly of the issues by the financial crime and compliance communities in the private sector but chose to ignore any reconditions of enhanced underwriting as they knew better.
They will blame try and blame the banks none the less for this.
Last I heard they had appointed an extra 1,000 HMRC investigators to claw these funds back. I wonder if there’s a lack of competency here where poor recovery as decided it’s cheaper to write off
Shocking really
They will blame try and blame the banks none the less for this.
Last I heard they had appointed an extra 1,000 HMRC investigators to claw these funds back. I wonder if there’s a lack of competency here where poor recovery as decided it’s cheaper to write off
Shocking really