Tony, our accountant hero, was thinking of the title of his first book.

Should it be, 'The three great tax myths' or '0017 1/2% – Licensed to kill with hand, gun or calculator'? He was shaken out of his thoughts by his phone ringing. It was Eric Pemember.

“Tony, orders are down. I know we have cut costs and your advice on flexible benefits saved a pay rise this year, but we need to let some people go.

"Steve, our production director, is 60 and he is happy to go, but I need to see him right.

"Keith says that I can just pay him the £30k tax free. Is it that simple?”

Keith is Eric’s best mate, provider of dodgy tax schemes and bane of Tony’s life.

“Eric I was just thinking about this. This is one of the myths of tax planning, alongside ‘if its offshore its tax free’, and ‘I can give my kids my house, live in it and save inheritance tax’. “Firstly, what does Steve’s contract say? How much notice is he on?

"How long has he worked for you? Does the contract deal with anything like pay in lieu of notice?

"Because of his age Steve’s statutory entitlement will be 1.5 times £330 for each full year of service.

"Also, how many are being made redundant?”

“Blimey Tony, you ask more questions than give answers.”

“Well, the risk is that any excess over the statutory amount could be taxable.

If the contract talks about payment in lieu of notice, then the Revenue can argue it is taxable.

Also given Steve’s age, the payment could be taxed as an unapproved retirement benefits scheme.

“There is some good news. You can apply to get confirmation that the payments will be tax free.

"Given that it is part of a wider redundancy scheme, it is very likely that you will be successful.

"Also you need to speak to your lawyer about the consultation periods for redundancy, and to make sure that the selection for redundancy is not on the grounds of race, sex, religion, sexual orientation, age or disability – they are all issues.

“Eric, I know you model yourself on Gene Hunt from Life on Mars but now is not the time!

"I'll get the clearance - make sure you do your bit properly.”

Tony thought perhaps a better title might be Accountancy by numbers: three's a crowd.