{"id":2899,"date":"2026-10-17T20:40:55","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T20:40:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/taxinvestigation.co\/new\/?p=2899"},"modified":"2026-10-17T20:40:58","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T20:40:58","slug":"youve-got-to-know-who-your-friends-are-by-tony-margaritelli","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taxinvestigation.co\/new\/youve-got-to-know-who-your-friends-are-by-tony-margaritelli\/","title":{"rendered":"You\u2019ve got to know who your friends are\u00a0by Tony Margaritelli"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Tony Margaritelli regrets the current lack of \u201chealthy tension between HMRC and tax professionals\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As we move inexorably towards the introduction of MTD, I for one am thinking just when my social media feeds and emails will be free of HMRC staffers\u2019 pictures gurning at me from any and every angle. They are usually surrounded by accountants and the like who seem delighted to be in their company, and for some reason want to post these pictures not just to friends but presumably their clients, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This personalisation and promotion of taxation by HMRC via social media is a new phenomenon and, frankly, is not to my liking. While watching a particularly fawning exchange I was reminded of the words of Anthony Thomas, former CIOT and LITRG Chairman, who said there should always be \u201ca healthy tension between HMRC and tax professionals\u201d. He went further saying: \u201cThere should be no cosy conferences, no favours or deals and no inside tracks,\u201d adding: \u201cHMRC officials are happy to have closer working when it suits them\u201d \u2013 a phrase I think we will be using more and more when MTD is finally rolled out and the struggles begin. I think we would do well to remember this when asked for or asking for a picture with HMRC staffers at some conference or other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Download the full article below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"core\/file\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!state.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/taxinvestigation.co\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Youve-got-to-know-who-your-friends-are-by-Tony-Margaritelli-.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of You\u2019ve got to know who your friends are by Tony Margaritelli.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-6ae43190-46bb-4ff5-8e87-ab648a7dde8b\" href=\"https:\/\/taxinvestigation.co\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Youve-got-to-know-who-your-friends-are-by-Tony-Margaritelli-.pdf\">You\u2019ve got to know who your friends are by Tony Margaritelli<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/taxinvestigation.co\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Youve-got-to-know-who-your-friends-are-by-Tony-Margaritelli-.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-6ae43190-46bb-4ff5-8e87-ab648a7dde8b\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tony Margaritelli regrets the current lack of \u201chealthy tension between HMRC and tax professionals\u201d. As we move inexorably towards the introduction of MTD, I for one am thinking just when my social media feeds and emails will be free of HMRC staffers\u2019 pictures gurning at me from any and every angle. They are usually surrounded [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-october-november-2025"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/taxinvestigation.co\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/taxinvestigation.co\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/taxinvestigation.co\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taxinvestigation.co\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taxinvestigation.co\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2899"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/taxinvestigation.co\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2901,"href":"https:\/\/taxinvestigation.co\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2899\/revisions\/2901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/taxinvestigation.co\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taxinvestigation.co\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taxinvestigation.co\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}