HMRC is increasingly organised in its approach to compliance and enforcement. From targeting specific trades and professions through to increasing its analysis of data, no one is safe from HMRC’s gaze.
With a tax gap of £34bn to reduce, and a £800m boost from the government to tackle non-compliance, we expect enquiry activity to be at the heart of HMRC’s strategic plans.
- During 2014/15, HMRC collected over £26.6bn from compliance activities
- The tax evasion hotline received over 84,000 calls in 2014
- 46% of HMRC staff is now involved in enforcement and compliance
- HMRC is moving all of its information into a single storage space called the ‘enterprise data hub’ where tax staff will see everything they need to know about an individual
HMRC’s latest activity now includes moving towards an estate of 13 regional centres from 170 tax offices, partly to build and develop specialist compliance teams.
HMRC also checks information received from card payment processors who handle credit and debit card transactions. These organisations now provide HMRC with reports of sales made which is checked against the turnover declared by retail businesses, not just to verify the amount of card income, but to gauge how much cash is being declared by the business.
In addition, Connect, HMRC’s award winning technology helps identify risks on tax returns submitted by individuals, partnerships and companies. Connect matches information held by other government agencies, tax evasion reports made by the public, social media profiling and data provided by third parties such as banks and letting agents to name a few. HMRC is exploiting this data further by moving all of this information into a single storage space called the ‘enterprise data hub’, where tax staff will see everything they need to know about an individual in one place.
To protect our clients, we offer a Tax Investigations Service. The Service covers the representation costs incurred when dealing with certain HMRC enquiries and ensures that if you are selected we will defend you and resolve the situation within the shortest possible timeframe.
For further information please contact us on 020 8458 7244.