Why is HMRC so fecking inept?

The debts owed by clubs in these situations to HMRC is always staggering and it's always the tax-payer that gets shafted. Why do they never seem to press for proper payment on time?

As complex as the EBT situations no doubt are, it's taken a decade to twig that the tax paid by Rangers was rather lower than what one might expect from a club paying highly paid footballers? And there are 4,000 other EBT cases that they're pursuing?

There's too much pussy-footing around, and it's not just football. I was involved in the fringes of a tax investigation at my last company due to a fairly punchy commercial structure used with some clients, and despite having a positive court case supporting HMRC regarding another company that got our lot s**tting themselves, the whole process was still dragged out and ineffectively pursued. I doubt they're any closer to actually getting any information out of the company, let alone the tax, and the view was always 'we'll be able to do a deal'. In the meantime the tax is unpaid, earning interest, eroding through inflation, and boosting shareholder value, while costing the taxpayer in terms of national debt. Where is the incentive on companies to pay up properly?

And the likes of us get done over with PAYE and threatened with fines if we dare to put our self-assessment forms in a few days late.

It's so bloody frustrating.

Posted By: CWC, Apr 13, 10:04:40