Accountant warns of unexpected demands

An accountant working with the optical profession said practitioners should not panic about unexpected demands from the taxman as they could be the ones owed money.

Marc Bennett of AEL Partners has reported an increased number of estimated assessments being raised by Customs, as the Treasury chases tax more aggressively during the recession.

'Customs shoot first and ask questions later,' he told Optician.

But practitioners receiving estimates may well have overpaid on VAT, Bennett said, through a misunderstanding of methods such as calculating taxable and exempt supplies on optical products.

'One of the biggest returns on investment will be the review of a VAT method. People don't understand how it works but I don't have to understand how refraction works to get a pair of glasses.