For Accountants & Professional Advisers

We handle the dispute. You keep the client.

Most of our work arrives the same way: a general-practice accountant opens a letter that is outside their comfort zone (a COP9 offer, a Kittel notice, a personal liability notice, a winding-up threat), and needs a specialist who will not poach the client. That is the deal, in plain terms: you refer the dispute, we run it, your client stays yours. We do not do compliance, bookkeeping, accounts or returns, so there is nothing for us to take.

What we take off your desk

COP9 and Contractual Disclosure Facility cases, where the 60-day window and the outline disclosure demand specialist judgement. VAT disputes, including Kittel and MTIC input-tax denials and best-judgement assessments. Personal liability notices and security notices against directors. Discovery assessments and the time-limit arguments that defeat them. Penalty mitigation, suspension negotiations and reasonable-excuse appeals. Statutory reviews, ADR and First-tier Tribunal preparation. If it involves HMRC and an argument, it is our day job.

When to pick up the phone

Some letters can wait until the client's next appointment. These cannot. A COP9 letter starts a 60-day clock the moment it lands, and what the client says (or doesn't say) in the outline disclosure shapes everything that follows. An invitation to a voluntary interview under caution means HMRC's criminal pathway is already in view. A Schedule 36 third-party notice to the client's bank means an enquiry has moved beyond the tax return. A personal liability notice warning letter means HMRC is looking through the company at the director personally. A discovery assessment reaching back more than four years means HMRC is alleging carelessness or deliberate behaviour, and the behaviour finding drives the penalty. If any of those arrive, ring us before the client responds to HMRC. The first response is the one HMRC quotes back for the rest of the case.

How a referral works

Call either office or email us with a one-paragraph outline, no client details needed at first contact. We will tell you the same day, without charge, whether the matter needs us at all; many do not, and we will say so. If it does, we quote a fixed fee before any engagement, agree with you how you want to be kept informed, and copy you into substantive correspondence so you are never explaining a surprise to your own client. Where you prefer to stay the client's sole point of contact, we can work behind you on a consultancy basis instead.

Three ways to work with us

Straight referral. We take the investigation, you keep the compliance work, and we copy you into substantive correspondence throughout. When the dispute closes, the client goes back to being wholly yours, usually more loyal to you, not less, because you found them the right specialist at the worst moment.

Behind-the-scenes consultancy. You remain the client's sole point of contact; we advise you. We review HMRC's correspondence, draft or sense-check your responses, build the technical arguments and prepare you for meetings. The client need never know we exist. Firms use this where the relationship is sensitive or where they want to build their own contentious experience.

Second opinion. A one-off, fixed-fee review of a live case (the assessment, the penalty position, the correspondence to date) with a written note of what we would do differently and what we would concede. Useful before you advise a client to accept a settlement, and useful evidence of diligence on your own file.

Why firms refer to us

Some of our team trained and worked inside HMRC, which shows in how we read an enquiry letter: what the inspector already knows, what they are fishing for, and where the statutory footing is weaker than the letter implies. Fees are fixed and agreed up front, so you can pass a number to your client with confidence. And we are open 8am–10pm, seven days, useful when a client rings you in a panic on a Saturday.

Protecting you, not just the client

Contentious work carries risk for the referring firm as well as the taxpayer. If HMRC alleges deliberate behaviour, continuing to act alone can put you in difficult territory under PCRT, particularly where the client's instructions and the filed returns don't reconcile. Unlike advice from a solicitor, an accountant's tax advice generally attracts no legal privilege, so your working papers and emails are reachable by a Schedule 36 notice. Bringing in a specialist at the right moment protects your position: it documents that you acted properly on discovery of a problem, keeps you out of the firing line in any penalty argument about the adviser's role, and gives your PII insurer nothing to work with. We are happy to speak to your compliance partner before any referral is made.

What it costs

The first conversation, your outline of the case and our honest view on whether it needs a specialist, is free, and many enquiries end there. Where we take a case on, we quote a fixed fee for each defined stage (disclosure report, enquiry response, review and appeal, tribunal preparation) before that stage begins, so you and the client always know the number in advance. There are no hourly surprises and no percentage-of-tax-saved arrangements. Consultancy and second-opinion work is quoted the same way. We do not pay or charge referral commissions. It keeps everyone's advice clean, and your client can be told so.

Questions firms ask us

Will you try to take the client's compliance work?

No, and structurally we can't. We do not offer accounts, bookkeeping, payroll or returns. Dispute resolution is the whole practice. The referral relationship only works if you can trust it, and our referral flow depends on that trust.

Can you work with a client who is hopeless with paperwork?

Yes. A large part of investigation work is reconstructing records that don't exist, from bank data, merchant statements, supplier records and third-party information. We would rather see the mess early than a neat story that unravels.

What if the client genuinely owes the tax?

Then the job is the penalty, not the liability: behaviour category, prompted versus unprompted disclosure, special reduction, suspension, and time to pay. The difference between a careless and a deliberate finding is routinely tens of thousands of pounds and, for directors, the difference between an ordinary settlement and a PLN.

Do you handle the whole of the UK?

Yes. HMRC work is national and most of it is done by phone, video and correspondence. Offices in London and Derby; clients everywhere else.

Free technical library

Our professional guides cover the case law advisers actually hit in practice: Martland on late appeals, discovery staleness after Tooth, the Schedule 24 penalty framework, Kittel knowledge tests, closure notice applications and more. They are free, uncluttered and written for professionals. Use them with or without us.