Unexpected wrinkles

An article in this week’s issue (online from Wednesday) looks at recent changes to entrepreneurs’ relief.

This is no accident: I see entrepreneurs’ relief as one of the core topics for Taxation, and we will keep returning to it.

It is probably the most valuable of all the reliefs with which readers will deal on a day-to-day basis.

The cost of getting it wrong can be enormous.

Managing client expectations is always difficult (“Everybody knows that you always pay 10% tax when you sell a business”), so keeping up to date is critically important.

It is surprising how often what appear to be perfectly straightforward situations turn out to have unexpected wrinkles. Do you always catch them in time?

What processes do you go through with your clients to keep their entrepreneurs’ relief status under review?

If you do not have an action plan, now is the time to put one in place. It will help you sleep at night, and should bring in much-needed fees.

Painful judgment

Read the decision in Stephen Taylor (TC4375) and imagine what it would have been like had it been your name, rather than of the taxpayer’s adviser, which featured in the judgment.

I suspect that you would, like me, be thinking, “There, but for the grace of God, go I”.

The tribunal was, I thought, heavy handed in its criticism of an agent who, as far as I can see, was trying to do her best under difficult circumstances.

To be told that “she should be aware that taking on new clients when under too much pressure is not necessarily the action of a reasonable person” must have been painful.

In my experience, tax agents bend over backwards to meet the demands of their clients, often way beyond whatever might be considered to be reasonable.

Perhaps saying no occasionally might not be a bad idea.

Hodge

You may have seen the announcement that Margaret Hodge is not standing for reappointment as chair of the Public Accounts Committee.

In next week’s issue, I will reflect on the impact the work of the committee under her leadership had on the UK tax system and its lasting legacy.