HMRC Survey

[UncleEbenezer]

In this morning's post, a letter that appears to be jointly from HMRC and someone called Kantar Public, who are conducting a survey for them. The gist of it seems to be

HMRC would like to understand more about the experience of investing in UK companies. Your views are important, as understanding your experience will help to ensure that the tax system and our services help support your investments.

and

We hope that you will be able to take part in this important study to help us understand how the EIS and VCTs are working.

The letter is, I guess, a matter of courtesy. I can opt out. If I accept being surveyed, it means the survey won't come as a cold-call - though of course the same could apply to someone impersonating them.

I think this is one I don't mind taking part in. An opportunity to provide honest feedback, and perhaps even mention how the stupid six-month rule stopped me making secondary-market VCT investments. But not an opportunity to pursue any more ambitious agenda: with them in control of the questioning, any attempt to spin would soon unravel.

Any fellow-fools find yourselves in this sample?

[PinkDalek]

There's a very brief summary of the survey here:

1.4 Research to explore customer experiences and attitudes to venture capital investments

From March to June 2018, HMRC will be working with an independent research agency - Kantar Public. The agency will conduct research on customer experiences and attitudes to tax-advantaged venture capital investments. ...

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... stoms-hmrc

[UncleEbenezer]

Ouch!

They just rang me, and what a f***ing mess!

The lady knew nothing about the subject, and neither it seems did the question-setters. There was hopeless confusion between EIS and VCT, with a lot of questions that made no sense at all, or were factually nonsense. Never mind the ones open to a range of interpretations that could lead to opposite answers.

Examples:
Reasons for selecting one VCT over another concerning companies invested in. Size, industry sector, growth rate, location? Erm, right, a generalist VCT has a portfolio of differing companies. And I have a portfolio of differing VCTs. Yes, I like the look of some portfolios better than others, but not by specific criteria that match her list: we're talking generalist VCTs here! The only criterion that's objectively somewhat quantifiable was "knowledge-intensive" companies. And to cap it all, the level of tax relief was cited as a reason to select one VCT over another!

Has my investing been affected by 2012 or 2015 rule changes? She insisted that for example VCT tax relief had risen from 20% to 30% in 2012, and was having none of it when I replied "no, that's EIS tax relief".

Had I claimed the maximum tax relief? Erm, clarify? If I invested £10k in a year then YES, I claimed £3k tax relief on that. If she means, did I ever invest *the* maximum £200k then NO, I don't have that sort of money. The previous question was similarly ambiguous: had I got full tax relief on dividends? Are we talking about tax relief not available because of the £200k limit, or not applicable because income failed to reach taxable levels? Or some other explanation like not being tax-resident? She had no idea, just the questions!

[Kidman]

To be fair to the questioner, it is very common to put surveys out to specialist companies who do marketing surveys and hence it is normal that the questioner has a limited understanding of the subject. The problem lies further back with whoever set the questions for the questioners to ask. Although it is an HMRC survey it could have been initiated by HMRC, HM Treasury or another department. They are the ones either failing to ask a reasonable question or perhaps trying to angle a question so much that in many cases it is unanswerable.

I haven't received a survey invitation so I wonder whether you are the only one? Anyone else being surveyed?

[scotia]

Anyone else being surveyed?

Not me - and I'm much relieved that I have not been asked, otherwise I would now be letting off steam in a similar manner to Uncle

[UncleEbenezer]

Wow! Aren't I the lucky one?

I just had an entirely separate call from Kantar: the other half of the same survey. The survey I already took was about me as an investor; today's call was in my capacity as proprietor of a (very) small business: how well are HMRC's rules serving UK SMBs?

We didn't get very far. The first question was whether we had sought external finance within the past ten years, whether successful or not. Clarifying that a director's loan or a simple 'credit' agreement for a service such as a regular 'phone don't count, the answer was No, so I'm not relevant to that survey.