A business owner’s responsibility includes ensuring that all tax due is paid on a timely basis. For many business owners it is then assumed that they can get on with their business and not have to interact with HMRC until the next tax due pay date.
Unfortunately HMRC can, and do, carry out investigations into a businesses’ tax affairs sometimes without notice and often for no obvious reason. This can be both stressful and costly. It has been reported that one third of the investigations launched in 2011 were targeted at small firms with a turnover of less than £150,000.
The Federation of Small Businesses estimates that HMRC enquiries can cost between £2000 and £5000 in accountancy fees, and this is not including extra costs incurred should the case need to be dealt with in the Courts and also not including the additional taxes that could be owed to HMRC as a result of the investigation.
Even for small businesses, tax investigations can continue for a period of months or even years, this in itself can prove costly to the business in time taken to manage the investigation even without the worry of incurring additional fees.
It can, therefore, be considered to be wise for a business owner to take out tax investigation insurance which will usually, under the terms of the policy, cover not only accountancy costs but also includes access to tax experts who will assist through the investigation.
Purchasing insurance that makes a tax enquiry a smoother process will generally make good commercial sense to a business owner and although statistically it’s unlikely that your business could face an HMRC investigation in the future it doesn’t rule out the possibility of it happening.
To avoid potentially large problems such as these, that not only distract business owners from their main focus of growing revenue but could incur unforeseen costs, it is advisable to speak with a good Accountant who will be able to advise you on what protection is available to you.
Here at Keen Dicey Grover we make it our business to provide the right services to protect our clients’ business finances. For a number of years now we have offered an insurance backed Fee Protection Service to our clients to ensure that should HMRC enquire into their affairs, they will not have to worry about how much our fees would be in supporting them whilst knowing that they have access not only to our experienced team but also to external experts at no extra cost. That way they can concentrate on growing their business with confidence.
Keen Dicey Grover
We care………….we really care
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