Filed under: HMRC
After the fanfare of publicity and stern warnings issued in recent months, HMRC has taken a U turn on its business record checks campaign. Now, rather than making threats of indiscriminate inspections to identify record keeping issues, they have declared any future inspections will be much more targeted.
HMRC has said that they will carry out any planned visits but will postpone any new SME business record checks (BRC) until a new approach has been developed which concentrates on higher risk businesses. New visits will not resume until HMRC announces the detail of a ‘revamped’ approach, which is expected some time after April 2012. (more…)
February 27, 2012
In last month’s Livewire newsletter, we reported a change to the ruling that shareholders informally winding up their companies can distribute any remaining funds as capital and depending on the circumstances, can also benefit from entrepreneurs’ relief.
With effect from 1st March, if the company concerned has distributable funds in excess of £25,000 all funds distributed will be treated as dividends and subjected to income tax in the usual way. This means tax will be payable at rates from 25% to 36% depending on the individual circumstances, rather than potentially at a rate of 10% if distributed as capital.
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February 23, 2012
It has come to Taxtalk’s attention that HMRC has a new taskforce (specialist team to undertake investigations into compliance activity) briefed to address non-filing of tax returns across the South East. This is because they believe there is an increasing problem with some taxpayers not submitting statutory returns across Corporation Tax, Income Tax, Self Assessment, PAYE and VAT.
The Government is spending £900m as part of a re-investment scheme designed to tackle tax evasion, avoidance and fraud from 2011/12. In return it hopes to generate an additional £7 billion each year by 2014/15.
You can be sure that taxpayers found breaking the rules will be penalised heavily. HMRC are going to be targeting taxpayers that they believe have made a conscious decision not to submit the necessary declarations. Honest businesses have absolutely nothing to worry about.
If you are unsure about your tax or think you may have underpaid, our advice is to speak to a tax expert to find out your best course of action. RJP’s Anne Eager specialises in tax enquiries to ask her a question email ae@rjp.co.uk.
December 15, 2011
It has come to our attention that HMRC have started issuing letters to UK customers of HSBC Switzerland requesting that they sign certain forms in respect of their tax affairs. These letters originate from the new Criminal Intelligence Group which is based out of Birmingham.
Recipients are being asked to respond by signing the forms before the 21st December deadline. Although the letter isn’t explicit, it’s quite likely that if you get one of these and do nothing, HMRC will launch a full investigation into your tax affairs.
Our advice to any clients or colleagues who get one of these letters is DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING without taking expert advice. If you are unsure and want some immediate advice about this, please do not hesitate to get in touch for a confidential, no cost and no obligation discussion.
You can email any of RJP’s partners, Lesley, Simon or Paul.
November 30, 2011
Whatever your circumstances it’s imperative to know what you should do if you have a tax shortfall to declare. The good news is that HMRC has several initiatives up and running aimed at helping you out; the bad news is that it is more determined than ever to crack down not just on tax evasion but on poor record keeping as well. (more…)
November 18, 2011
HMRC recently announced that since their pilot exercise was so successful they are going to extend their Business Records Checks programme. It was inevitable it would be deemed successful, ‘Record checks’ are effectively a euphemism for ‘getting fast access to accounts to check for tax shortfalls’.
The pilot programme involved visits to SMEs to ensure that their business records were adequate. Around 44 per cent of businesses visited had ‘issues’ with record-keeping, while around 12 per cent of those visited had seriously inadequate records. (more…)
October 14, 2011
In the past few weeks HMRC has launched yet further initiatives designed to identify businesses with tax shortfalls and this time, it’s restaurant owners and VAT dodgers who are in the spotlight. These campaigns are big business for HMRC; over the course of their previous campaigns, £500m has been recouped, with an extra £100m due from taxpayers who did not take advantage of previous disclosure opportunities.
Yields of this magnitude are undoubtedly very pleasing for the Government, who has set aside £900m for its efforts to tackle tax evasion. A return on investment of this level demonstrates an excellent result and shows tax payers are keen to take advantage of the chance to ‘come clean’ with minimal penalties payable.
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July 18, 2011
If you are not a plumber (or even if you are!) you might be forgiven for not being aware of the current tax amnesty being offered by HMRC. Plumbers, gas fitters, heating engineers and other associated trade members are all being given the chance to notify HMRC of any tax underpayment by 31st May 2011. Provided certain conditions are met, any penalties payable will be at a greatly reduced rate.
Continue May 27, 2011
HRMC has been experiencing a lot of problems in recent months as we all know, with incorrect coding notices being the most high profile. Due to a mixture of computer and personnel errors, the blunders continue and we face them all the time in our daily dealings with individual Revenue advisors. In some cases the mistakes are so nonsensical, they are actually rather comical, although for the individual taxpayer facing a lengthy tax re-claim, perhaps not……
Continue March 16, 2011
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