HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) applies to courts for winding-up orders so that it can liquidate firms’ assets in order to recover the tax it is owed.
Figures released today show that HMRC filed only 315 petitions in the year to 31 March in Scotland, down from 986 in the previous 12 months.
Hmm, OK, so HMRC decided to try bankrupting fewer firms in pursuit of unpaid tax.
Note that Scottish prosecutions for failing to file accounts just faded away in this period due to cost pressure. It now looks as if HMRC is also failing to uphold the law in Scotland for much the same reason.
What sort of justice system is it that the government can’t afford to use it, one has to ask?
Ritchie immediately leaps to the idea that the people who employ his beloved PCS are being starved of the funds necessary to mount such prosecutions.
Hmm. Could also be that in a recession, in these tough times, they\’ve decided that aggressive collection of tax from near bankrupt companies might not be a good idea? Let it roll for a bit and see if they can pay it later?
In fact, don\’t I dimly recall that they\’ve been instructed to be a bit more tender and caring on this specific point?
Tim
You can’t expect him to understand these nuances when he’s simply the paid mouthpiece, as you say of the Taxman’s union.
Increasingly I’m having a hard time differentiating between @RichardJMurphy and @MurphyRichards. The situation is similar to a Telegraph column ‘New Labour website number 11’ inaugurated after the 1997 election victory. The column’s author, journalist A.N Wilson said that Tony Blair had become such a self parody after about three years of the column’s existence that it became impossible to continue the spoof.
I know you don’t like giving him any exposure but this one was quite simply breathtaking
http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2013/07/15/since-when-was-consensus-a-pre-requisite-for-change-a-reply-to-the-fair-tax-mark-debate
The message seems to be two fold. 1/ There is no need for any counter opinions to be considered because the ‘Fair Tax mark’ (and by extension Murphy) have the only valid opinion.
2/Any attempt to silence me will be an unacceptable impediment on Freeedom of Speech – an attitude which given his blog comments policy is hypocrisy so blatant it is hard to know where to begin
I know dealing with this man’s nonsense would probably become a full time job but really he has reached the point where the lines between satire and reality have become almost non-existent…
Perhaps HMRC has finally realised that chasing people with no assets is not likely to be very profitable…
he has reached the point where the lines between satire and reality have become almost non-existent
He is an extremist, and therefore like all extremists subject to Poe’s Law.
It’s like a scene from a Guy Ritchie (sic) film.
“Cough up now, or Cleaver will get to test his new toys.”
“Honest, guv, I don’t have anything… I’ve a deal in the works. Aagh. Friday… Aagh. Saturday, at latest, I’ll have it. Aagh.”
“Let ‘im go. Make sure that gig comes off ‘cos I want my money on Saturday. With appropriate vig. You’ve kept me hanging on too long.”
It’s more likely that some of these activities are now being under taken by the privatised collection agencies (currently 3 of them), so court listings would be in their name, not HMRC.
However, can’t see Ritchie the taxman’s union shill being very happy about that either.
The drop in prosecutions of some companies for failing to file accounts means resources must have been pulled from HMRC’s efforts to wind other companies for non-payment:- really! “This apple tastes terrible; the farmer must be neglecting his potato crop”
Truly classic Ritchiebollocks.
I thought I read recently that HMRC-driven bankruptcies had increased. I see these figures are only for Scotland; is this tryingto soften up the Jocks before the referendum?
I was under the impression that HMRC is no longer treated as a preferential creditor, so issuing winding-up procedures for a virtually bankrupt company isn’t going to net them any money anyway.