[Gringo]

My accountant has this service for £90, I wondered if anyone else uses this, covers cost of accountancy fees if you get investigated, don't know if worth doing or not, if fees were hundreds prob not worth it but if it dragged on and went into thousands defo would, I'm sole trader btw

[Stoots]

No i dont but my accountant offers this and i reckon i would be really kicking myself for scrimping if it ever came to it.

[Ched]

The way I look at this tax investigation insurance is if your are a sole trader how much would HMRC think they can get back off you and would it cover their time and effort to conduct an investigation? Bottom line is if you have an accountant and are declaring everything then I doubt you have anything to worry about.
That said if you are getting towards Vat threshold then £90 might be a good investment as 20% of £85k is a big chunk, should they decide you have 'forgotten' to put turnover through!

[dd]

I got investigated 15 years or more ago.

I just had to go to an interview at the tax office, answer loads of questions about my annual expenditure, provide various proofs as much as was possible, regards income and expenditure, and nothing much came of it.

For a Sole Trader, as long as you can give a good and fair account of yourself, IMO this kind of insurance is unnecessary.

[Granny]

I won't bother with my relatively small income as a sole trader.
Post pandemic the Tax investigations are going to be focused on all the ones who got bounce back loans and disappeared and all the other of billions and billions of fraud and dodgy loans that have taken place!
I think it will be years and years before they have the resources to chase small sole traders.

[KS Cleaning]

When I used to employ and had a bigger turnover and more expenditure I used to take out the insurance. Now I work on my own I don’t bother.
 Ched hit the nail on the head with his post.