Should you always believe what you read online?

Should you always believe what you read in the press?
Over the weekend there were three particular stories that caught my eye when reading the news online, the first was the BBC’s investigation into the tax avoidance arrangement to exploit the £2,000 employer’s allowance.  This seems to me to be investigative journalism working well.  Uncovering some fairly unsavoury “planning” to exploit a tax relief intended to incentivise small business.

Unfortunately, the other two articles highlighted the UK media’s current lack of understanding of our tax system.  Sky News reported that employers must set up pension schemes for their employees from Monday or face stiff penalties.  Whilst there’s nothing wrong with the basics of the story, it certainly couldn’t be described as the “first phase” of the rules. The first employers were affected from October 2012 with progressively smaller employers being affected up to 2017.

The third article was highly publicised across the media following its initial reporting in the Telegraph and suggested that HMRC were going to “let off” hundreds of thousands of self-assessment tax-payers who filed their tax return late.

Sounds great if you’re one of the 900,000 taxpayers affected!  Once again there was too little attention to detail as the reality is that HMRC have always “let off” taxpayers who had a reasonable excuse.  Nothing has changed.  If you file late and don’t have a reasonable excuse then you will have to pay the penalty.  The trick is knowing whether your excuse is reasonable.

My advice is don’t always believe everything you read in the media.  If you think you might be affected by any issue raised then speak to your professional adviser before you do anything.  You will then get a balanced and considered opinion on the story and can make an informed decision whether to take your issue forward.