A common feeling amongst cabin crew at the present is that the audit failed due to crew from all the airlines partaking to supply enough receipts .
The thought,therefore,is that the fault lays firmly at the door of HMRC and BASSA is blameless.
The silence from BASSA is deafening.
HMRC cannot be blamed for this.
HMRC's job is to basically collect the right amount of tax at the right time. HMRC cannot be expected to do BASSA/CC's work for them. It's not for HMRC to prove that sums paid by BA to its CC employees should not be treated as taxable income. If BASSA were representing CC on this, that's their job - which, if they'd done a proper thorough job, would have included an assessment as to how vulnerable the current system of CC allowances is to challenge from HMRC and, if so, whether an alternative system would be better. Any professional advisor would have recommended this if they'd been retained to work with BASSA on this.
If BASSA did not use professional advisors (which for negotiations concerning 14,000 CC with complex working practices and pay structure really should have been used), I think the money they've spent over the past few months hiring venues at racecourses certainly could have been put to better use..