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Join for freePosted: Tue 29th Sep 2026
This webinar is perfect for small businesses that are worried about making mistakes when it comes to tax filings, whatever the tax may be.
Georgia Gibson-Smith covers current areas of HMRC interest and what kind of information HMRC might hold on you and your business, as well as advice on how to rectify past errors and omissions and how to respond to any HMRC letters or enquiries.
Learn where small businesses are most likely to go wrong with tax filings and what HMRC are really interested in
How to respond to an HMRC letter without giving everything away
How to rectify any tax mistakes to give you peace of mind to move forward
Georgia is a senior manager in the Menzies Tax Disputes and Disclosures team, helping individuals, businesses and companies rectify their positions with HMRC.
Georgia is a chartered accountant and chartered tax adviser with experience in helping clients with UK tax affairs arising from both on- and offshore matters.
This includes everything from smaller HMRC enquiries, appeals, and complaints, to voluntary disclosures and larger COP8 and COP9 investigations.
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Lightly edited for clarity.
Beth: Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's Lunch and Learn. My name is Beth, and I'll be your host today. For those of you attending a Lunch and Learn for the first time, Enterprise Nation is a vibrant community platform for start-ups and small businesses.
I'm very pleased to introduce Georgia Gibson-Smith, who is a senior manager in the Menzies tax disputes and disclosures team. In this session, Georgia will discuss where small businesses are most likely to go wrong with tax filings and what HMRC are really interested in.
If you have any questions throughout the webinar, please post them in the chat or in the Q&A box, and we'll do our best to answer them at the end of the session. As always, the session will be recorded, and we will send the recording along with some follow-up resources later today. Without further ado, I'll hand over to you, Georgia.
Georgia Gibson-Smith: Thank you very much for the introduction, and thank you, everyone, for attending today. This will be a bit of a whistle-stop tour through navigating tax as a business owner.
As mentioned, I'm Georgia. I'm a senior manager at Menzies, and I specialise in tax disputes and disclosures. That's helping individuals and businesses rectify errors and omissions, whether that's because of simple human error, all the way up to cases of big fraud, where a tax loss has been caused due to deliberate behaviour.
Today, these are the things we're going to cover. We'll start with current areas of HMRC focus, some common pitfalls and mistakes that we see in our experience, and what exactly HMRC's powers are to gather information on you and your businesses. We'll then look at the types of HMRC letters you might receive and what to do about those, and how to rectify mistakes if you do find that you've made one in the past.
Firstly, current areas of HMRC interest. Small businesses are very much an overall area of focus for HMRC. The tax gap is the difference between what HMRC expects to collect in tax revenues and what is actually collected.
It's estimated by HMRC that 60% of this tax gap arises from small businesses. That could be due to errors in corporation tax returns, for example, or it could be what they call the hidden economy, where some businesses manage to fly under the radar. Or it might be those who deliberately try to keep their turnover under the VAT registration threshold.
Owner-managed companies are definitely on HMRC's radar. You may be aware that there's a consultation ongoing at the minute about whether HMRC could and should find out more information about transactions with directors and participators through the corporation tax return.
Digital or online platforms are a key area of focus. You may or may not be aware that digital platforms had to start collecting and reporting user information to HMRC from last year. HMRC are therefore receiving information about the number of sales and overall value of sales where you're selling goods and services through an online platform.
This might more commonly be individuals who end up with a sole trader business – for example, if you're a fast food courier through Just Eat, Deliveroo, etc, or a delivery driver through Evri and so on. Or it might be if you buy and sell goods on, for example, eBay for the purposes of making a profit.
It can therefore mean that individuals who are perhaps just selling off second-hand goods after a clear-out might end up receiving a letter from HMRC, but there's no tax to pay. But it can also mean that if you're a business of any kind and you haven't been declaring your online sales for any reason, HMRC may well write to you soon. That could be through, for example, Amazon, eBay, Etsy or any of those online sites.
Crypto is another area that HMRC pick up on frequently. It might be more common that crypto is held by individuals, but it can also be the case that you might have invested through a company. If so, you definitely want to make sure not only that this is being taxed correctly, but also that it's being treated correctly in the company accounts.
A key area that HMRC always have under review is any kind of employment-related issue. This could be anything from national minimum wage problems to under-declared benefits in kind, or it might be where mistakes are made if you're operating, say, tax relief or pension contributions, or perhaps CIS. And finally, if you operate till sales, then electronic sales suppression, or ESS, is something HMRC is on the lookout for, and this is a type of tax fraud.
In our experience in the disputes and disclosures world, there are some areas where we see the same mistakes come up time and time again. Probably the biggest is personal expenditure, where a director might put personal expenses through the company accounts. This can have a knock-on impact for corporation tax.
It can create a director's loan account that's in debit, which then means your company might have section 455 tax to pay, and you might then have to pay income tax on any distributions you take to clear that DLA. It might also give rise to a beneficial loan if you didn't see the debit balance coming and you didn't charge interest on that DLA. That, in turn, can lead to a benefit-in-kind problem, so income tax and NICs.
Other common kinds of disclosures we see are withholding tax disclosures. This might be where there's no overall tax loss, but administratively, the right thing wasn't filed at the right time. For example, a director may have put credit into their DLA, and the company pays interest on that loan but doesn't file the appropriate CT61s.
Benefits in kind in general can be an area where business owners don't know their obligations in full. It's important to know, for example, if you need a PSA, which is where perhaps you're offering benefits such as staff entertainment or birthday or holiday gifts, where you don't want the employees to pay tax on that.
The PSA is a forward-looking agreement. If you didn't have a PSA in place at the right time and you do offer those benefits, then unfortunately, you may have to disclose them as if they were a P11D-type benefit.
There can also be confusion where rules are complicated or out of the ordinary, so it is important to seek advice if you're entering into some kind of weird transactional arrangement that you're not sure about. For example, we might see that people get confused if a company owns or lets a property and it's a connected party or a relative, not you yourself, who's living in that property.
CIS is something where we see HMRC open a lot of inquiries. This is usually because they might have received mismatched data from the company and the subcontractors. It's also an area where it's just easy to make mistakes.
It's therefore important to take care with matters such as verifying the tax status of the subcontractors, and to make sure in all cases you have good records in case HMRC do inquire into a CIS return. Similarly, anything VAT- or cross-border related is another key area where it's easy to make mistakes. It's really important to use an adviser if you're not sure about the VAT treatment of something.
What we've seen in recent inquiries as well is that HMRC are really pushing to see records, and if you don't have those records, they might be denying input VAT claims. So do ensure you know your record-keeping requirements and make sure all your files are in order in case HMRC open a compliance check for VAT purposes.
Checks can be completely random, but they can also be triggered if, for example, you're reclaiming VAT for the first time in a while, or if you've been reclaiming VAT consistently but HMRC haven't yet looked into your VAT affairs. Another area that's important to know about is that it can cause a huge financial loss to a business. This is where HMRC suspect that there's fraud in the supply chain, and they think that you should have been aware of that.
We've seen VAT reclaims held by HMRC because of this, and it can really impact your cash flow if that is a large VAT reclaim and it's sitting with HMRC. It's therefore always important to check the VAT numbers on any purchase invoices to make sure the VAT registrations of your suppliers are live. That's important at the outset, but also on an ongoing basis.
If you have any doubts, do query it with your suppliers. If you can't demonstrate you've done this, HMRC may not process your VAT reclaim.
Annual tax on enveloped dwellings, or ATED, is something that business owners sometimes simply don't know exists and haven't heard of. This tax applies if your company owns a residential property. If the property is being let commercially to third parties, generally speaking, you may well be able to claim relief, but the filing obligation exists regardless if, broadly, the property is valued at over £500,000.
If, for example, your company owns property that's used for directors to occasionally stay in when travelling, or for relatives of the company directors or owners, then relief typically isn't available, and the ATED charge may apply. We do handle many ATED disclosures, and generally, it's because business owners simply aren't aware that ATED exists. So do bear that in mind if you own or are considering buying property through your business.
Capital allowances can give rise to inquiries quite frequently, particularly if there's something big in there, like if you've done a big refurb project recently. That's an area where we'd really recommend using an adviser to help you prepare the claims in the first place.
Generally speaking, if HMRC open an inquiry because of capital allowances, they might want to see a full breakdown of your claim and some explanations as to some of the items. Usually, they'll request invoice evidence, perhaps for the top-value items.
I've mentioned that HMRC can write to you because they have information. But how do they get it, and what do they really know? Firstly, they know what you tell them.
There's a lot of information in the filings you already make. That might be a corporation tax return or a sole trader self-assessment tax return. If you're VAT registered, there'll be VAT returns, and if you have a payroll scheme, then HMRC will have your RTI filings, and there may well be CIS-related returns as well.
Anything you file in a return might give HMRC a reason to open a check, but equally, it could be random. HMRC also obtain information from a wide range of other sources.
Over the past few years, HMRC have invested more and more in surveillance training internally. Surveillance from HMRC might include things like site visits if you have, say, a shop, cafe or other premises, and it can include using AI to scour social media. HMRC might, for example, be looking for areas where public posts don't align with the lifestyle or trends that are appearing in the tax filings.
If you do have physical premises, HMRC can attend undercover. For example, they might make a cash purchase and then later check that that purchase went through your books, or they might attend a restaurant to count the number of covers and then verify that at a later date.
There is also, of course, plenty of publicly available information, with Companies House and the Land Registry as big ones. HMRC can also use other people's filings to check against yours – for example, cross-referencing input and corresponding output VAT claims and declarations.
I've mentioned digital platforms. They report to HMRC annually, and cryptoasset service providers will be doing this as well. HMRC can also obtain annual information from offshore jurisdictions via the CRS, which is the Common Reporting Standard, where offshore jurisdictions share information with each other on an annual basis.
HMRC also have formal powers to check into your business's tax affairs, and there are some formal powers to check information with third parties. HMRC can open an inquiry. They can informally open a check and ask for some information, or they can issue you with a Schedule 36 information notice.
This Schedule 36 notice shouldn't be ignored, as if you do ignore it, you might end up with a £300 penalty. There are new powers specifically relating to anti-avoidance, and I won't go into huge detail on anti-avoidance here. But if you were ever to receive an anti-avoidance information notice, or AAIN, then penalties for not responding to those are in the thousands.
So do always pay attention to an HMRC letter, whatever it may be. If HMRC cannot obtain information from the taxpayer, they may use their powers to go to other third parties and financial institutions. But there are safeguards in place, and HMRC do have to obtain approval, either from you, the taxpayer, first, or through a tribunal if you don't give your approval.
I've mentioned that it's worth paying attention to HMRC letters, but what are they all, and what do they mean? HMRC can issue a nudge letter. This might be where they have information that doesn't match up, and they want you to check your tax filings and be proactive about it, but it may not always mean they've found a tax problem.
This is also called a one-to-many letter, because HMRC will be focusing on one tax issue and writing to many taxpayers all in one go. They haven't necessarily determined that you specifically have a problem, but if you receive a nudge letter, it's always worth checking that everything's in order and responding to HMRC either way. Especially if there's nothing wrong, you can write back and explain why there's nothing wrong.
In an attempt to help taxpayers get things right the first time, HMRC are also sending information letters. These might not even suggest there's something they know about from the past, but they might be a prompt to say don't forget to check X, Y or Z when you come to prepare your return in the future.
A section 9A inquiry is a formal check into a taxpayer's tax affairs, and HMRC may request information informally, or they may request it through that Schedule 36 formal notice. Either way, it's always worth checking, firstly, whether HMRC have opened a valid inquiry, as they only have a specific time frame to do so, and secondly, whether the information they've requested is reasonably required to check the tax position.
By way of example, HMRC may open an inquiry into your capital allowances claim and request the top 10 value invoices that form that claim, and that would be reasonably required for checking that claim and the tax position. But it would not be reasonable for HMRC to ask for the company's entire bank account history for the last five years, for example. So do watch out for those unreasonable requests, as you can push back against these.
I've put COP8 in there as well – that's Code of Practice 8. This is where HMRC suspect tax avoidance, so it should be taken seriously if you receive one of those letters, as the investigation will then be handled by HMRC's Fraud Investigation Service.
If an HMRC letter says assessment, determination, closure notice or penalty, then this will usually be bringing something into charge, whether it's tax or a penalty, and you should always take care to review it. It might be that over the course of an inquiry or investigation, you've already agreed the figures with HMRC, and the assessment is simply the numbers you expected. But if not, you generally have 30 days to appeal, and you must include your grounds for appeal.
Less common, but certainly worth mentioning, is if you receive a letter that says HMRC invite you into Code of Practice 9, or the Contractual Disclosure Facility. This means that HMRC suspect you have committed tax fraud, so it should be taken very seriously.
In this case, we advise that you seek advice from a specialist COP9 adviser, as generally speaking, this doesn't come up that often. And HMRC can take over cases if an adviser is not familiar enough with the COP9 process.
So how do you bring your tax affairs up to date if you think you have made a historic error or omission? If the underlying behaviour is not deliberate, perhaps because you took reasonable care or you admit that the behaviour was careless, then the voluntary disclosure process is usually the way to go.
There are specific disclosure facilities for R&D and for crypto, for example. But in all cases, a notification can be made through the Digital Disclosure Service, or DDS. How the disclosure is then submitted to HMRC depends on the type of entity.
If it's a small business or sole trader, it will go to VCSO, which is the Volume Compliance and Shared Operations team at HMRC. If it's a mid-sized business or wealthy individual, that would go to the Wealthy and Mid-sized team at HMRC. If it's a large company, there may well already be a customer compliance manager in place, in which case they should always be approached first.
If it's payroll related, unfortunately, it joins a long queue of payroll disclosures, and the payroll disclosure team at HMRC are approximately 18 months behind schedule at the moment. But equally, if there's a return that could be amended because you're inside the amendment window, then you should go ahead and do that as soon as possible once you've realised you've made an error or omission and once you have the updated figures. Otherwise, historic matters will go through the disclosure process.
For indirect taxes, it can be a bit different. For VAT, for example, you may well be able to submit an error correction or a late claim in the normal way unless there's deliberate behaviour. For something like stamp duty land tax, generally, this is just a resubmission of the return with the right information.
If there's an open inquiry and, as part of that investigation, you realise there are historic issues that need disclosing, then you should disclose those matters to the inquiring officer rather than use a disclosure facility. The officer can then issue assessments and a closure notice to bring everything up to date.
As a side note, if you can't agree with HMRC through that inquiry process and they do raise assessments that you disagree with, then you do have the right to appeal. If that's rejected, you can request an independent review, and then you're in the territory of tribunal appeals and possibly using ADR, or the alternative dispute resolution process.
Finally, if there is deliberate behaviour for any tax, then the COP9 or Contractual Disclosure Facility route is really the recommended way to proceed. You can enter into COP9 voluntarily, and it's worth noting that whilst the process is only for individuals, an individual disclosure can, and indeed should, include any corporate problems arising.
For example, if a company director has been committing VAT fraud, the director personally will enter COP9, but the corporate entity's VAT liabilities will be included in that person's disclosure. COP9 is the only disclosure facility that can protect an individual from criminal prosecution, provided they make a full and complete disclosure.
As a takeaway, here are some tips on being proactive to try to avoid running into problems with HMRC to begin with. Firstly, be inquiring. If you're unsure about the tax treatment of something, ask your accountant, and if your own experience or research doesn't match the advice you've been given, always feel free to push further.
There has been recent consultation on whether to introduce reckless as a behaviour, which would mean potential criminal prosecution in cases where the taxpayer simply should have known better. And already, we see HMRC push back in cases where taxpayers have relied on their accountant's advice.
If an accountant hasn't written it down or provided you with formal written advice, or you can't demonstrate that you engaged an accountant for that specific advice, then you may not be able to demonstrate later to HMRC that you, as the taxpayer, took reasonable care. That really matters for penalty purposes.
Be transparent and upfront. If there's a contentious tax matter in your tax computation or something out of the ordinary that hasn't been there in previous years – it could be that your turnover has significantly dropped for some reason or a certain type of expense has significantly increased – then a white space disclosure note or a footnote can protect you. HMRC can inquire into a return within the normal time limits, but if they've missed the window and you've provided sufficient information in your disclosure notes, then that can protect you against future discovery by HMRC and give you some finality.
Be forthcoming. If you notice an error or omission in a past filing, come forward voluntarily to rectify it first. Notifying HMRC that you intend to make a disclosure can protect unprompted status.
If HMRC finds you first and writes to you, then that will be a prompted disclosure, and generally, these come with higher financial penalties than unprompted disclosures. There's also current draft legislation which, if it comes in, will mean behaviour will be treated as deliberate by default if you became aware of an error but failed to act on it in a reasonable time frame, even if that error was caused by careless and not deliberate behaviour.
If this legislation is passed, it might have a huge impact on taxpayers who don't come forward in a timely manner. At best, it could mean higher financial penalties, details published on the list of deliberate defaulters or being put into the Managing Deliberate Defaulters regime, and at worst, a criminal investigation where it's deliberate behaviour.
Be responsive. If HMRC write to you, take note of any deadlines and don't miss them, in case it either lands you a penalty or you miss an opportunity to appeal. To receive the minimum available penalty where there's a loss of tax, you need full mitigation for telling, helping and giving, and delayed or incomplete responses will not help with this.
An HMRC investigation can seem daunting, but it's always best to proactively engage. And finally, know your rights. If you aren't sure how to proceed, consult your accountant or a specialist disclosure or disputes adviser.
Small accountants make the world go round, but sometimes they will know their own limits when it comes to HMRC. It's important you know how best to proceed when cases become contentious or drawn out, and it's important to know your rights to appeal and make complaints. So if in doubt, always seek professional advice.
That brings me to the end of my presentation today. Thank you very much for paying attention if you've stuck with me through all of that, and I will happily take any questions. But equally, if you come up with questions in future, feel free to reach out to me on Enterprise Nation or on LinkedIn, or my contact details are here for reference.
Thank you very much. I think we can turn to the questions – there might be some in the chat.
Beth: Thank you so much, Georgia. That was super comprehensive.
We've got some questions in, so we'll start with a question from Philip, which he emailed in earlier. Philip says, "When I set up my small company a few years ago, my financial year started on 1 November.
"Since that time, I believe the rules have changed such that I either need to report my financials in two part years or to change my year-end to 31 March. I've been burying my head in the sand over this. What should I be doing now and how?"
Georgia: I'm assuming that relates to the basis period reforms, which would be relevant for sole trader businesses. So I'm assuming Philip is running a sole trader business and filing through self-assessment.
If that's the case, and you don't have an accountant already, I would consult one for your 2025/26 return, which is due by January 2027. They can help you change your year-end if you want to align it with the tax year, and that can be beneficial due to things like overlap periods.
I'm no expert on basis periods, so I would just say seek professional advice. But equally, if I've misconstrued and it's a limited company, then the basis period reform probably isn't relevant, so no worries about stressing about your year-end.
Beth: Great, thank you. I hope that answers your question, Philip.
Next, a question in the Q&A. For small sole traders who are well below the VAT threshold and only submit a self assessment tax return, how much interest does HMRC typically take in these businesses?
Georgia: It's not a question anyone can definitively answer, but as I've alluded to, HMRC can randomly check anyone at any time. They have inquiry powers for up to a year after you've filed your self-assessment return.
That's what I was saying earlier about finality. Once that year has passed, if you've made full disclosure of everything in your self-assessment return, you can move forward.
They might be interested in you if they think there's something wrong, so it's up to you to make sure your tax affairs are correct. But there's no percentage or statistic to say HMRC will spend X amount of their time looking into sole trader businesses.
Beth: That makes sense. Next, a question from Steven in the chat. Steven says, "If you previously used an accountant to file your tax return and you want to complete it yourself next time, do you need to tell HMRC or do anything else in particular?"
Georgia: No, you don't. I'm assuming, again, that might be a self-assessment return, because it's very easy to submit those yourself.
You have no obligation to tell HMRC, though there's a box on your return that says whether an adviser is filing it on your behalf, so they'll see that you've got no adviser filing it for you next time. But if there is anything complicated in there, having that accountant in place can sometimes give you some protection if you're relying on their advice. If your tax affairs are simple, then go for it – submit it yourself and don't incur the expense if you don't feel you need to.
Beth: That's great. This next one is from the chat – this person is retired and receives a pension, but also makes money from their website. Does their pension get added to the website income for tax purposes, or are they treated separately?
Georgia: I can't give definitive tax advice, but generally speaking, pensions are taxable income. So yes, you would add everything up, and if it's over your personal allowance, or if you go over, say, the basic rate tax band, then that needs to be factored in.
There are some kinds of exempt pension income, and I couldn't say right now if that's the case here. But generally speaking, pension income is taxable, and it's all added together.
Beth: Great. Which areas of small business tax are currently receiving the most attention from HMRC?
Georgia: I can speak in terms of my personal experience, but it's across the board. We see a lot of VAT [transcribed as "fast"] inquiries, a lot of CIS inquiries and a lot of payroll-related, employer-related checks as well.
I think they are just areas where it's so easy to make simple mistakes. You might make a simple mistake in payroll, but it turns out that over the course of the last six years, the amount you've made a mistake about is quite huge.
So it's always good to make sure those affairs, particularly, are in order. With corporation tax, it's more ad hoc and might depend on what you've filed, but it's across the board really with the other taxes.
Beth: That makes sense. Looking in the chat, there's a question from Leah around benefits. If they give staff a gift or pay for a team meal, for example, can their business claim the cost as an expense?
If so, is it treated as a business expense but not deducted for tax purposes? And how should it be recorded?
Georgia: There's a difference here between staff entertainment and non-staff entertainment. Generally speaking, if you have a payroll and you have people working for you, then if you take them out for a team meal or something like that, that's absolutely fine to put through the business, and it's a deductible expense as well.
If you were to take a bunch of suppliers or some referrers out, that's non-staff entertaining. You can put it through the business, but for corporation tax purposes, it's not deductible, so you'd have to add that back.
So there is a distinction there. Staff entertainment is encouraged – it's for the purposes of staff retention – but anything we typically call client entertaining or business entertaining would not be deductible. It can get a bit complicated if you have both staff and non-staff, so it's always best to consult your accountant.
I think you also asked how to put it through the accounts. Assuming you've got good accounting software in place, you can set up codes for staff entertaining and non-staff entertaining, and I definitely recommend keeping them separate.
If you have an event that is mixed, then try to find a way to apportion that between staff and non-staff so you can make sure the tax is correct. That's important for both corporation tax and VAT.
Beth: That's great, thank you, Georgia. I know we're running out of time, but we've still got some questions here, so we'll try to get through another one or two if that's OK.
Georgia: Of course.
Beth: How can you tell the difference between a routine HMRC query and a more serious inquiry?
Georgia: A few different things, probably. What is a routine inquiry really? There's no one straightforward method of inquiry, but if your letter has come from FIS, the Fraud Investigation Service, then that is very serious, and you should take it very seriously.
That might not necessarily mean they suspect fraud, but I mentioned COP8 earlier, which is where it's tax avoidance. If they think you're involved in some kind of weird tax scheme, then it might be the fraud team writing to you.
I certainly know that when R&D inquiries blew up a year or so ago, some of those letters about R&D inquiries were coming from the fraud team. There was no underlying belief that there was fraud, but it is just a more serious letter.
If you get a section 9A inquiry letter through the post, there's no one routine way to inquire, but always pay attention to what they're asking. You'll get an indication, or your accountant might be able to help you work out what they're really driving at.
It might be something in isolation – they want to check a capital gain or something to do with crypto – and it will be very specific and their questions will be targeted. If their questions are very broad and it's just saying, "We want to check your return, give us all your bank statements," then I'd be a bit concerned. They're probably going on a bit of a fishing expedition, so be careful how you respond there.
Beth: Got you. We have time for one more, if that's OK, Georgia.
Georgia: Of course.
Beth: Someone in the chat says banks only allow you to trade statements as far back as six years. But how far back can HMRC compel you to provide?
Georgia: That's a really good question, and it really depends on the unique circumstances of everyone's case. People commonly think it's just four years or just six years, but where there's deliberate behaviour, it's 20.
Or let's say you've never filed tax returns, but you should have done. Unless you have a reasonable excuse, that's also a 20-year time window. I appreciate, obviously, that banks might not have the information.
What we do for clients who need to make a disclosure in what we call a failure to notify case, where returns weren't filed to begin with, and it's a 20-year case, is use the information we do have to try to work out estimated figures for those historic periods. HMRC appreciate we can't always rely on bank statement data, because it simply doesn't exist due to the passage of time.
That's quite common, especially in our big fraud cases, where we have to go back 20 years. We work with what we have.
In some cases, banks do hold statements a bit longer than six or seven years, and you can always submit a subject access request to the bank, and they'll send you everything they've got, which is usually big boxes of paperwork that you might not want. But it's always worth asking if you do need it.
It's always worth consulting a disclosures adviser if you're worried about how far to go back. If you have a reasonable excuse or can demonstrate you took reasonable care, you might be able to limit the time window to four years, and if you've made careless errors, it might be six or 12.
If it's a failure to notify or deliberate behaviour, then it might be 20. But it's always worth checking before you hand over 20 years' worth of documents to HMRC.
Beth: Absolutely. It's a lot of admin, isn't it?
Georgia: An awful lot.
Beth: Thanks so much, Georgia. We do have some more questions, but unfortunately, we've run out of time.
I've popped Georgia's Enterprise Nation profile and LinkedIn in the chat, so please do reach out to her afterwards. There are lots of thank-yous in the chat, Georgia.
Georgia: Oh, thank you so much, everyone.
Beth: Thank you so much for joining us today, and we hope to see you in the next one. Just as a reminder, we are going to send this recording out along with a few further resources today. Thank you, and we'll see you in the next one.
Georgia: Thank you very much. Thanks, everyone. Bye.
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