Dealing with HMRC's Agent Toolkits and Other Risks
Price: £305+VAT
What's included?
The Tax Risk Management Manual is part of an annual subscription service, giving you:
Product Description
The Tax Risk Management Manual is a comprehensive guide to the most common risks and errors seen in the preparation of client tax returns. It explains the risks and sets out the various ways in which different firms could choose to manage these risks.
Managing tax risk has always been important and most firms already have a range of quality control procedures to give them confidence in the accuracy of returns presented to their clients for approval.
However, HMRC have recently acquired significantly enhanced information and inspection powers to obtain taxpayer information and inspect business premises. If they find an error in a tax return or other tax document, they have the right to charge substantial penalties, unless the taxpayer can demonstrate that reasonable care has been taken.
For an agent to be taking reasonable care on their clients’ behalf they clearly must have sufficiently strong quality control procedures in place to ensure that they ask their clients for all relevant information, apply the correct tax legislation and guidance to produce an accurate return and then obtain client approval.
Following this theme, HMRC published 20 “toolkits”, designed for agent use. These set out what HMRC perceive to be the key risks inherent in certain areas of taxation and return preparation and give links to where further guidance can be found. Use of the toolkits is voluntary but ignoring them is a high risk approach. It is widely anticipated that HMRC officers will use the toolkits as aides mémoires in future compliance activities.
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The Tax Risk Management Manual can help you demonstrate that reasonable care has been taken when preparing your clients' returns by setting out and explaining common tax risks (including those risks outlined by HMRC in their Agent Toolkits, saving you from examining each toolkit individually) and providing you with a range of methods for managing tax risks.
This can help you protect your clients as far as possible from HMRC's imposed penalties for inaccurate returns.
Contents
- Guidance on the penalty regime for incorrect returns
- Guidance on HMRC's Agent Toolkits
- Common mistakes seen by HMRC and SWAT UK and how to avoid them
- The difference between HMRC’s view and the law
- Risks involved in the preparation of:
- Personal Tax Returns
- Partnership Tax Returns
- Trust Tax Returns
- Company Tax Returns
- P11D Returns
- VAT Returns
- and other returns
- Suggestions and template documentation for managing these risks
- Record keeping requirements
- And much more
Includes a FREE tax checklist generator
|
While not every firm will wish to add tax checklists to their files, those that do would have the laborious job of bringing together the relevant questions raised by HMRC in the various Agent Toolkits into one place for their client file. The Tax Risk Management Manual solves this problem.
Included with the Tax Risk Management Manual is a FREE tax checklist generator, to help you:
- Acknowledge and deal with the issues identified in HMRC's agent toolkits and other risks assessed by SWAT UK
- Produce topical tax checklists at the click of a button
- Ensure your tax staff are considering all necessary risks and using the correct tax legislation before they submit returns
- Minimise the risk of your clients receiving a penalty from HMRC
Plus, you can tailor each checklist for your own needs, allowing efficient working practices.
You can tell the simple yet clever Excel based programme what type of return you are preparing and which income sources the client has, and a tailored checklist will automatically be produced. The tailored checklist may be printed or completed on screen.
Depending on the firm’s individual approach to risk management, the checklists can be set up to show:
- HMRC and SWAT UK questions or HMRC questions only
- All questions raised in the Toolkits or a summary of risk themes
- All questions or just those topical for the period in question, an especially useful option for firms that just need to keep up to date
This allows the firm to continue working efficiently without having hundreds of questions to answer on each tax return assignment!
|
|
Screenshots
Click on a screenshot below to enlargen
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The tax checklist generator has an incredibly useful “HELP button” that will provide further information on a particular question and links to external guidance where applicable. Even for firms that don’t want to complete tax checklists, this provides an easy route into guidance when researching a technical area.
Two updates a year
As part of your annual subscription to the Tax Risk Management Manual, you’ll receive 2 updates a year incorporating:
- Guidance on topical developments
- New or revised risks raised in toolkits issued by HMRC
- New or revised legislation and guidance affecting the tax areas contained within the manual, to ensure you always have the most up to date guidance
- Any new risks identified by SWAT UK
These regular updates will give you access to the most up to date guidance and help you to prevent errors being made as a result of changing tax law or HMRC guidance.
*Your subscription to the Tax Risk Management Manual includes 2 updates a year, although depending on the month in which you join, you may only receive one update in your first year and then 2 updates thereafter.
Two FREE email newsletters each year
You’ll also receive two email newsletters each year, with information on new or amended Toolkits and other topical tax developments.
What firms are saying about the Tax Risk Management Manual
Paul Aplin OBE FCA CTA(Fellow)
Tax Partner, A C Mole & Sons
"Tax risk is a very real issue for every practice these days thanks to complex legislation, an increasingly harsh penalty regime and the ever present threat of a PI claim if things go wrong. Risks need to be identified and either eliminated or actively managed. The days when this could be achieved by the exercise of judgement alone have long gone and SWAT UK’s Tax Risk manual provides a clear framework for identifying and managing risk areas, building on the foundation of HMRC’s toolkits supplemented with practical and technical commentary. The integral checklist generator can be tailored to client specific as well as generic risks. This is a very practical tool which should find a ready home in any practice."
Jeremy Sidaway, Sidaway Limited
"Just a quick note to say thanks for the tax checklists update. We used them on every return after we subscribed last year. I thought the checklists (and generator) are excellent and we have made them part of our procedures for every return".
The Tax Risk Management Manual Subscription Service
Purchasers of the Tax Risk Management Manual will automatically be added to our subscription service. This will ensure you always have access to the latest and most up to date manual. By joining the subscription programme, you’ll automatically receive the next update of the manual as soon as it is updated, and every time thereafter, for as long as your subscription is valid. Having ordered a copy of the manual, we will issue your firm with an invoice for the following year’s subscription in 12 months’ time. You may cancel your subscription upon renewal. If you receive an update and wish to return it, as long as you do so within 30 days and do not break the security seal, a credit note will be issued. As we develop the subscription service, we will aim to issue you with updates as they happen, meaning you'll keep your finger on the pulse of quality control updates.
Please note: SWAT UK does not support Office 2000 or older products.
Security Seals on CD Products
All of our CD products have a security seal attached to them. By breaking the seal, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions of sale. You can return your purchase to us in its original condition within 30 days of the date you received the item with its security seal intact and we will issue a full refund for the price you paid for the item. We can only accept the return of opened items (where the security seal has been broken) if they are faulty.
Do you have a copy of SWAT UK's Practice Assurance Manual?
The Tax Risk Management Manual is fully compatible with the Practice Assurance Manual, meaning you can run the two side by side, helping to ensure consistency throughout your work.
More support for agents preparing tax returns
SWAT UK provide a range of support to agents preparing tax returns for their clients. Click on a button below or call us on 0845 450 5555 to find out more.
Dealing with HMRC's Agent Toolkits and Other Risks
Price: £305+VAT
What's included?
The Tax Risk Management Manual is part of an annual subscription service, giving you:
Product Description
The Tax Risk Management Manual is a comprehensive guide to the most common risks and errors seen in the preparation of client tax returns. It explains the risks and sets out the various ways in which different firms could choose to manage these risks.
Managing tax risk has always been important and most firms already have a range of quality control procedures to give them confidence in the accuracy of returns presented to their clients for approval.
However, HMRC have recently acquired significantly enhanced information and inspection powers to obtain taxpayer information and inspect business premises. If they find an error in a tax return or other tax document, they have the right to charge substantial penalties, unless the taxpayer can demonstrate that reasonable care has been taken.
For an agent to be taking reasonable care on their clients’ behalf they clearly must have sufficiently strong quality control procedures in place to ensure that they ask their clients for all relevant information, apply the correct tax legislation and guidance to produce an accurate return and then obtain client approval.
Following this theme, HMRC published 20 “toolkits”, designed for agent use. These set out what HMRC perceive to be the key risks inherent in certain areas of taxation and return preparation and give links to where further guidance can be found. Use of the toolkits is voluntary but ignoring them is a high risk approach. It is widely anticipated that HMRC officers will use the toolkits as aides mémoires in future compliance activities.
|
|
|
The Tax Risk Management Manual can help you demonstrate that reasonable care has been taken when preparing your clients' returns by setting out and explaining common tax risks (including those risks outlined by HMRC in their Agent Toolkits, saving you from examining each toolkit individually) and providing you with a range of methods for managing tax risks.
This can help you protect your clients as far as possible from HMRC's imposed penalties for inaccurate returns.
Contents
- Guidance on the penalty regime for incorrect returns
- Guidance on HMRC's Agent Toolkits
- Common mistakes seen by HMRC and SWAT UK and how to avoid them
- The difference between HMRC’s view and the law
- Risks involved in the preparation of:
- Personal Tax Returns
- Partnership Tax Returns
- Trust Tax Returns
- Company Tax Returns
- P11D Returns
- VAT Returns
- and other returns
- Suggestions and template documentation for managing these risks
- Record keeping requirements
- And much more
Includes a FREE tax checklist generator
|
While not every firm will wish to add tax checklists to their files, those that do would have the laborious job of bringing together the relevant questions raised by HMRC in the various Agent Toolkits into one place for their client file. The Tax Risk Management Manual solves this problem.
Included with the Tax Risk Management Manual is a FREE tax checklist generator, to help you:
- Acknowledge and deal with the issues identified in HMRC's agent toolkits and other risks assessed by SWAT UK
- Produce topical tax checklists at the click of a button
- Ensure your tax staff are considering all necessary risks and using the correct tax legislation before they submit returns
- Minimise the risk of your clients receiving a penalty from HMRC
Plus, you can tailor each checklist for your own needs, allowing efficient working practices.
You can tell the simple yet clever Excel based programme what type of return you are preparing and which income sources the client has, and a tailored checklist will automatically be produced. The tailored checklist may be printed or completed on screen.
Depending on the firm’s individual approach to risk management, the checklists can be set up to show:
- HMRC and SWAT UK questions or HMRC questions only
- All questions raised in the Toolkits or a summary of risk themes
- All questions or just those topical for the period in question, an especially useful option for firms that just need to keep up to date
This allows the firm to continue working efficiently without having hundreds of questions to answer on each tax return assignment!
|
|
Screenshots
Click on a screenshot below to enlargen
|
The tax checklist generator has an incredibly useful “HELP button” that will provide further information on a particular question and links to external guidance where applicable. Even for firms that don’t want to complete tax checklists, this provides an easy route into guidance when researching a technical area.
Two updates a year
As part of your annual subscription to the Tax Risk Management Manual, you’ll receive 2 updates a year incorporating:
- Guidance on topical developments
- New or revised risks raised in toolkits issued by HMRC
- New or revised legislation and guidance affecting the tax areas contained within the manual, to ensure you always have the most up to date guidance
- Any new risks identified by SWAT UK
These regular updates will give you access to the most up to date guidance and help you to prevent errors being made as a result of changing tax law or HMRC guidance.
*Your subscription to the Tax Risk Management Manual includes 2 updates a year, although depending on the month in which you join, you may only receive one update in your first year and then 2 updates thereafter.
Two FREE email newsletters each year
You’ll also receive two email newsletters each year, with information on new or amended Toolkits and other topical tax developments.
What firms are saying about the Tax Risk Management Manual
Paul Aplin OBE FCA CTA(Fellow)
Tax Partner, A C Mole & Sons
"Tax risk is a very real issue for every practice these days thanks to complex legislation, an increasingly harsh penalty regime and the ever present threat of a PI claim if things go wrong. Risks need to be identified and either eliminated or actively managed. The days when this could be achieved by the exercise of judgement alone have long gone and SWAT UK’s Tax Risk manual provides a clear framework for identifying and managing risk areas, building on the foundation of HMRC’s toolkits supplemented with practical and technical commentary. The integral checklist generator can be tailored to client specific as well as generic risks. This is a very practical tool which should find a ready home in any practice."
Jeremy Sidaway, Sidaway Limited
"Just a quick note to say thanks for the tax checklists update. We used them on every return after we subscribed last year. I thought the checklists (and generator) are excellent and we have made them part of our procedures for every return".
The Tax Risk Management Manual Subscription Service
Purchasers of the Tax Risk Management Manual will automatically be added to our subscription service. This will ensure you always have access to the latest and most up to date manual. By joining the subscription programme, you’ll automatically receive the next update of the manual as soon as it is updated, and every time thereafter, for as long as your subscription is valid. Having ordered a copy of the manual, we will issue your firm with an invoice for the following year’s subscription in 12 months’ time. You may cancel your subscription upon renewal. If you receive an update and wish to return it, as long as you do so within 30 days and do not break the security seal, a credit note will be issued. As we develop the subscription service, we will aim to issue you with updates as they happen, meaning you'll keep your finger on the pulse of quality control updates.
Please note: SWAT UK does not support Office 2000 or older products.
Security Seals on CD Products
All of our CD products have a security seal attached to them. By breaking the seal, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions of sale. You can return your purchase to us in its original condition within 30 days of the date you received the item with its security seal intact and we will issue a full refund for the price you paid for the item. We can only accept the return of opened items (where the security seal has been broken) if they are faulty.
Do you have a copy of SWAT UK's Practice Assurance Manual?
The Tax Risk Management Manual is fully compatible with the Practice Assurance Manual, meaning you can run the two side by side, helping to ensure consistency throughout your work.
More support for agents preparing tax returns
SWAT UK provide a range of support to agents preparing tax returns for their clients. Click on a button below or call us on 0845 450 5555 to find out more.