PRESS RELEASE NO 94 – SALISBURY JOURNAL

Q I have heard that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are stepping up their campaign against those who are not paying the right amount of tax.

A You are correct, these special projects have been around for some time now. Previous HMRC projects have targeted savers in offshore investments, medical professionals and workers in the plumbing industry.

Specialist teams carry out concentrated compliance activity in specific high risk trade sectors and locations across the UK, this is all part of the Government’s aim to tackle tax evasion, avoidance and fraud and to raise an additional £7 billion each year by 2014/15.

In fact, HMRC task forces will, over the coming weeks, be tackling tax dodgers in the restaurant trade, targeting businesses in London, Scotland and North Wales.

The department says its campaigns focus on areas where it has identified significant underpayment and that they provide straightforward opportunities for customers to put their records in order on the best possible terms, followed by swift action to target those who choose not to take up those opportunities.

HMRC indicates that previous projects have raised over £500 million from voluntary disclosures and a further £100 million from follow-up activity.

This new campaign will be launched in the summer, is to target individuals and businesses who are trading above the VAT threshold but have not registered for VAT, a new drive against rule breakers.

The VAT threshold is currently £73,000 turnover on a rolling annual basis.

The author is Simon Ellingham at Fawcetts Chartered Accountants, members of UK200Group with offices throughout the UK and Associates overseas.