HMRC investigations can be costly for businesses, with little forward planning offered as they can be instigated at any time.
Involving a high-level review or deep dive into your client's tax affairs, the process is inevitably costly which will either need to be passed directly to your client or absorbed by your practice – even if the result of the investigation is a clean bill of health.
There are various products available which provide financial protection to cover the cost of these investigations commonly referred to as Fee Protection, Professional Fee Insurance or Tax Investigation Cover – essentially, they offer security for both you and your client financially.
Protection for your clients, security for your business
Assisting HMRC with their enquiry can use a significant number of business hours, incurring fees that need to be billed to your client's account. In many cases this leads clients to ask why they are being billed for the cost of an investigation into work they have already paid for, even though this is nothing to do with the level of service they have received and is not a measure for wrongdoing.
In practice, this inevitably means a degree of negotiation between you and your client around the level of recovery on your costs.
Whilst some practices offer this protection as a complimentary service, many view it as a supplementary income stream – however, Markel's products allow you to add your margin onto your net cost prior to invoicing your client.
Lockton have partnered with Markel to bring you market leading fee protection insurance – so if you would like to learn more about their products and solutions please click the link below.
Markel Tax | Fee Protection Insurance
Please note this link will direct you to an external third party website where Lockton may earn commission on any qualifying purchase.