The Practitioner: You get what you PAYE for
I will feel slightly awkward when I write to the client who is about to receive a large invoice from the PAYE expert, offering him the fee protection going forward
SINCE writing my last blog I have been away to sunny Spain for ten days. It’s always a struggle to return especially after having such a great time with the family. One thing that struck me about Spain was how cheap things were. Granted we were visiting friends in a non-tourist area, so prices were always going to be less than the over inflated tourist areas. Property prices were cheap too compared to where I live now. I think if the kids were a bit older I would be tempted to up sticks and move. I could quite happily service 90% of my fee base from the beach…
Back to earth with a bang however and I’m here to stay for a few years longer at least. I have a couple of clients who have HMRC enquiries ongoing that are starting to come to a conclusion. One of them we had to pass over to a PAYE expert to assist with the final stages of the enquiry.
A former HMRC inspector herself, she has been invaluable in fighting the client’s corner. Her invoice is due to land soon however. This coincides with a meeting I have lined up next week with a company wanting to sell me a fee protection package for my clients. I did offer this to clients about five years ago, some of them took it up and some didn’t. None of them renewed after the first year however. I know
I will feel slightly awkward when I write to the client who is about to receive a large invoice from the PAYE expert, offering him the fee protection going forward. He would more than likely have saved himself the best part of £10k if he had renewed the insurance from previous years. I can’t be responsible for everything though can I?
I’m sure it’s not just me but I do have feelings of guilt when HMRC find something wrong with clients records. There is no insurance I can buy to make that feeling go away. Not even PI does the job!
