We recently partnered with Croner Tax to offer clients "Fee Protection" Insurance and HR support. We were intending to roll this out at the end of March, but events obviously took a turn!
Fee protection Insurance is a small, relatively inexpensive policy that covers the costs of professional representation in the event of an HMRC enquiry into Self Assessment, Corporation Tax, VAT, PAYE, CIS, Status determination and many other areas.
What that means is that should HMRC decide to open an enquiry, the costs of defending and professional representation in dealing with that enquiry (including visits by HMRC officers where you wish us to be present), are covered.
In truth investigations are infrequent and rarely onerous, especially where good accounting has been practised - however they do occur from time to time and can bring the unwelcome prospect of additional accounting fees, even if the result of the investigation finds no additional tax due.
Now, with the governments unprecedented business support during COVID 19, our professional bodies are briefing us to be prepared for a few potential HMRC "checks" (both random and targeted) on some of the claims relating to furloughing, self employed grants and some of the other schemes once the pandemic dies down. How resourced they are to do this remains a question mark, and again in the majority of cases this will be extremely easy to answer where genuine claims have been made - but in some more complex cases it may incur costs in communicating with HMRC. The good news is that Croner have informed us that the standard Fee protection policy we offer, will extend to covering these costs too.
Policies start from just £3 a month for very small straight forward businesses and increase depending on a few variables and the larger the business, so if you are interested in a quote or more information then contact tom@greenlineccountants.com.
HR SUPPORT
We also now offer a subscription based HR support line for clients requiring specialist employment advice with regards to contracts, employee rights and employment law. It's operated by leading legal experts in partnership with Croner, and our clients can access this service as often as they require once they are subscribed on our system.
Again, the service covers all employment issues relating to COVID-19 too, offering you an additional layer of invaluable advice at this difficult time.
Again, please contact tom@greenlineaccountants.com to find out more.
PLEASE NOTE
Fee Protection policies only cover the professional fees involved in a case, not the tax liability resulting from the enquiry
Ongoing HMRC enquiries will not be covered by a policy taken out AFTER HMRC have opened their enquiry