HMRC have their cake and eat it
If the average person on the street makes a mistake when submitting their tax return then you can be sure that the authorities will come down on them like a ton of bricks. As the old saying goes, there are two things that are certain in this world: death and taxes.
The question that we ask in this week's episode of the podcast is what happens when Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs make the mistake.
You might think they ought to be ever so penitent and pay what they owe back in full but that is not exactly the way they roll. Instead they fight for every penny and that is why in this week's episode of the podcast we follow them all the way to the Supreme Court.
The mistake in question was the overcharging of VAT and companies were not given anywhere near enough time to claim it back. Once this had been set straight the questions around who could claim and how much came to the surface.
Believe it or not this state of disarray has been going on for more than ten years and has not been helped by a lack of organisation by the government, poor drafting and an enforcement mechanism that creates more issues than it solves.
Often we talk about who 'won' a case but in the bigger picture it is worth bearing in mind that the taxman never loses.
Episode link: http://uklawweekly.com/2018-uksc-35/
Subscribe on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/uk-law-weekly/id1137316725?mt=2
PS Here is a link to the online course on commercial law mentioned on the episode:
http://uklawweekly.com/videos/commercial/
With over 3 hours worth of content this is a must for anyone starting the subject this year before wasting money on a textbook!