Mobile phone trader battles on in HMRC VAT fight
Managing director of Procomm preparing to spend £150,000 in legal fees to get payments back
The managing director of one mobile phone trader is preparing to shell out more than £150,000 in legal fees to get his VAT payments back from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
As CRN’s campaign to highlight the plight of innocent traders hit by HMRC’s Extended Verification process enters its seventh week, Clive Jefferson, managing director of Procomm, is determined to keep trading.
He has been waiting more than a year for his VAT repayments, which now total about £3.5m. He has also been forced to lay off four members of staff.
“We have been in business since 2000 and were spending between £80,000 and £90,000 on due diligence each year to ensure that everything in our supply chain was above board,” he said. “HMRC is making life difficult for our industry, but all we can do is cut down our overheads as far as we can and dig our heels in.”