Need some unofficial financial advice

AcID ZeR0

Recently we sold our second home which was left to us in the will of my fathers late mother.

We paid for a financial advisor last year and he gave us an exact figure on the capital gains tax we'd have to pay it was in the £1000 mark and the figure was in writing.

So basically he told us we had around £130,000 to invest as we pleased.
20k was spent on a new car the rest was put into long term savings as result of advice.

However as we're due to pay the captial gains next Jan we got a phone call from the finacial advisors yesterday saying they'd made a mistake instead of us having paying £1000 we're going to have to pay £11,000 captial gains tax now we cannot afford this as all our money is locked up in long term secure investments.

As the financial adviser which we paid to help us secure our future somehow misjudged tax to the sum of £10,000 do we have a case to sue the company to try and recoupe some if not all of the £10,000 as we took their advise and because all our money is now locked up we're in a impossible situation when it comes to paying tax this january

Nuttzz

your adviser was negligent and does have a case to any answer which a solicitor will help you with, but to be honest knowing who solicitors work it would be months before it will be sorted, you will have to look at releasing some cash from the long term savings accepting the penalties that will go with it or getting a loan to cover it, or not paying the revenue commissioners until the advisor coughs up (which will only be his fee at most) and paying the tax plus interest & penalties. Option 3 isn't really one IMO the revenue have cracked down seriously in the last few years on this

antoinolachtnai

Go find out for yourself how much money you actually owe the revenue. If you can't figure it out yourself from the website (or even if you can) ring the revenue and ask them how to calculate it. They don't actually bite. Go borrow the money and pay the revenue. You'll have to pay anyway. The bank might give you a good deal if you have money in there and you can always use the investments as security. Go to a few solicitors and find out the options for taking legal action against the guy. There is some chance you might be able to recover the interest charges as well as the fee. It would be well worth seeing if there is any industry regulator or professional body you can make a complaint to. Going to court for the sake of what is going to work out at a couple of grand is a terrible headwreck.

threebeards

As your financial advisor has given incorrect advice in writing, AFAIK he's liable. If he's reputable, he will have Professional Indemnity and that being the case, can make a claim on that. You're the wronged party here. I'd follow it up.

is_that_so

Just to add that I have had reasonably positive experiences with Revenue in paying Capital Gains and other taxes. They will want the money but as long as you are not out to defraud them they are open to negotiation/discussion. My personal opinion is that they can be flexible depending on the case. It is not in their interest to crucify honest tax payers.

RainyDay

Is your advisor an accoutant? Or a solicitor? If so, you could consider a complaint to his professional body. Talk to the guys in IFSRA for more information.

Even though they screwed up, I doubt if you could legally oblige them to pay the CGT bill. You might be able to get them to cover any losses you incur by having to cash in your long-term investments.