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Professional Fee Protection Scheme

This Content Was Last Updated on March 10, 2024 by Jessica Garbett

 

Our parent Whitefield Tax offers a Professional Fee Protection Scheme, which is a optional scheme to cover accountancy fees for tax enquiries and disputes.

Premiums for policy year 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2024 – including VAT

  • £51.60 (£43 plus vat) Individual Taxpayers  including Sole Traders with turnover of less than £15k (not partnerships or companies), and landlords with income of less than £50k
  • £134.40 (£122 plus vat) Sole Traders with turnover over £15k, and Landlords with income over £50k (also directors and partners not covered under the Company/Partnership premium)
  • £160.80 (£134 plus vat) Companies, including Personal Service Companies, partnerships and LLPs – this includes personal cover for Partners/Directors provided any personal Self Employed income and Rental income is below £15k and £50k respectively

 

Summary of Cover

Up to £125,000 of professional fees for tax enquiries and tax disputes, including VAT, PAYE and IR35.  The full details of cover and exclusions is on Whitefield’s website

 

Do I need this cover?

Its difficult to answer that question.  Professionally, we have an obligation to make you aware of the availability of Fee Protection (formerly known as Tax Enquiry Insurance)

For most limited companies, the cover is sensible, particularly if VAT registered, PAYE registered or both.  VAT and PAYE disputes can become intractable quite easily.

For sole traders it is a matter of personal attitude to risk v cost.

How much does a typical tax enquiry cost fee wise?  Well, as a firm over the years our fees have ranged between £500 +vat at the lowest to upward of £35,000 + vat, the latter being a complex serious civil tax fraud case, and the former a very simple case.  For a solo yoga teacher, we would hope that both the incidence of disputes would be low, and fee ranges at the lower end of the scale.

The biggest risk for yoga businesses are probably:

  • Inadequacy of cash income records and/or HMRC challenging their accuracy
  • Disputes over expenses such as clothing and travel (areas of contention)
  • VAT disputes, especially where there is a non standard business structure

 

Taking cover up

To make application as straight forward as possible, you can apply and pay by card via our website.

We are sorry, but we cannot accept payment by Cheque or Bank Transfer for this cover.

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