DID YOU SEE that there will be no further checks on accountancy firms going forward under the Business Records Checks scheme?

It seems sensible that HMRC has decided that practices won't have to go through business record checks when the scheme is re-focused and re-launched.

But the announcement came in an otherwise unsatisfactory response from the taxman to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request.

The main question that went unanswered from Abbey Tax's FoI was 'how many accountancy firms have been subject to a business record check?'.

The reason HMRC couldn't answer? They said it would cost more than £600 to sift through the data. In other words, they calculate that a member of staff at £25 per hour would need to spend more than 3.5 days going through the 2,500 undertaken record checks.

Now, is it just me or does this smack of hypocrisy?

Does HMRC not have a spreadsheet containing details of the checks it undertook, with perhaps a business sector 'column'??

The mind boggles. Check your own records, before checking others.

HAS DAVE HARTNETT been pushed out?

While it can be argued that he's served beyond the normal tenure for a permanent secretary, Hartnett's recent protestations that he's in the role for the long haul counter this argument.

I'm sure he will regret that his legacy will contain a big focus on the public issues that have gone against him - namely Goldman Sachs/Vodafone, plus the PAYE problems last year that saw him initially refuse to apologise for the underpayments.

Among the accounting profession he's always been regarded as quite hard-nosed - but at least up front. Love him or hate him, he's stepped up in recent years to become the face of the taxman. Various chairmen and other executives have kept in the background.

But for someone who'd probably like to be known as pragmatic and for pushing hard for the right tax to be paid - recent problems under the glare of the public's eye will leave many with a different perception.

WHAT PRICE a house owners' amnesty??

The taxman is acting as a 'hired gun', providing mortgage lenders with an 'assurance service' by validating some mortgage requests against the individual's tax return. The idea is to cut down on mortgage frauds.

But it appears a very small step for the taxman to take to use such requests to analyse whether the individuals have ducked income tax or CGT through owning more than one property.

HMRC certainly didn't shoot down my suggestion. When put to the taxman a spokeswoman replied in a statement: "HMRC uses many sources of information as part of its risk assessment processes, and information provided to HMRC by lenders as part the MVS will naturally feed into this.

So, as the opening line says, house owners' amnesty anybody?