Does the cost of professional tax advice represent value for money? It would seem HMRC confirms that the cost of professional tax advice does indeed represent good value for money.
In a First Tier Tribunal appeal a taxpayer is told that “tax advice is too expensive” is not a reasonable excuse for not taking corrective action required by HMRC.
Richard Coombs, Tax Partner at Bates Weston comments:
“Whenever a professional is used to solve a problem, the issue of value for money comes into play. At the end of the day we are all customers and want to make sure that our hard earned money is spent wisely. The old adage of “buy cheap, buy twice” is often used and the same can be said for professional tax advice, except for the fact that the financial cost of getting it wrong can be huge. This case was all about a tax avoidance case gone wrong, and one does have some sympathy for the taxpayer not wishing to spend good money after bad having paid a lot of money to the promoters of the tax avoidance scheme in the first place. His argument that the reason he did not take further advice to correct the position was that it was too expensive, was held by the judge not be a reasonable excuse and therefore upheld the penalties against him.
Whilst I am obviously commenting from the adviser’s perspective, if I was about to jump out of a plane I would not want to be wearing the parachute from the “discounted seconds” section of the store. Tax advice is very much the same. Take the advice you need from someone suitably qualified to give it and be prepared to pay for good quality advice. It will be worth it in the end.”
As always, you are reminded that this article is generic in nature and you should take no action based upon it without consulting your professional advisor.
