HMRC’s ‘Tax Return Initiative’, aimed at taxpayers who have outstanding self assessment returns for 2009/10 or earlier, has prompted tax professionals to repeat calls for a general disclosure facility open to all taxpayers.
HMRC said in February that it was planning to invite higher rate taxpayers who had failed to complete returns to make a voluntary disclosure. The department said on 3 July: ‘People have until 2 October 2012 to tell HMRC they want to take part, submit completed returns, and pay the tax and NICs that they owe. By coming forward voluntarily through the campaign customers will receive better terms, and any penalty they pay will be lower than if HMRC comes to them first.
‘After 2 October, if they have not submitted their tax returns and paid what they owe, HMRC will use its powers to pursue outstanding returns and any unpaid tax and NIC. Penalties of up to 100% of the tax due or even criminal investigation could follow.’
‘A big national campaign’
MPs on the Treasury Committee suggested in March that HMRC should consider establishing a general disclosure facility to run alongside its targeted campaigns.
Gary Ashford represents the CIOT on HMRC’s Compliance Reform Forum. Responding to the Treasury Committee’s report, he said there was a danger that a ‘conveyor belt’ of disclosure facilities aimed at different groups would make others who wish to get their tax affairs in order ‘wonder whether they should wait for their opportunity’.
Last week Ashford said many people would be surprised that HMRC had to launch a campaign to bring in tax returns that were at least 17 months late.
‘Rather than continuing to launch different targeted campaigns every few weeks … HMRC should focus their efforts on a big national campaign open to all taxpayers whose tax affairs are not up to date,’ he said. ‘A one-off general disclosure facility that lasts sufficiently long and is sufficiently attractive to get people to come forward to clean the slate would make sense,’ he said.
‘Endless string of amnesties’
George Bull, Senior Tax Partner at Baker Tilly, said HMRC’s ‘belated attempt’ to secure completion of returns begged the question ‘why HMRC hasn’t already pursued the recalcitrants’.
‘It’s not as if HMRC doesn’t know who they are,’ he said. ‘We also have doubts as to whether this amnesty is actually fair. The page on the HMRC website detailing the amnesty suggests that people who sign up … may be treated more leniently than those who have already filed late for any of those years and were charged interest and penalties. That’s a bit like retailers offering better terms to new customers than long-standing, loyal customers.’
HMRC’s guidance says: ‘If you submit your tax returns for 2009/10 or earlier by 2 October 2012 and pay any tax and NICs you owe by then … you will receive the best terms available. The penalty “saving” could be up to 100 % of the tax and NICs payable had the return been submitted by the correct date.’
Bull added: ‘Furthermore, this endless string of amnesties is beginning to reflect badly on the taxman. Why doesn’t HMRC offer a blanket amnesty, giving anybody whose tax affairs are not in good order a once-and-for-all chance to make honest women and men of themselves, before returning to the normal, statutory regime for tax compliance?
HMRC provides Campaign news and updates on its website. Previous campaigns targeted offshore investments, medical professionals, private tutors and coaches, plumbers, electricians, VAT defaulters and online traders.
Those campaigns have yielded ‘nearly £510m from voluntary disclosures and over £120m from non-compliance follow-up from a large number of civil interventions, including over 18,000 completed investigations’, HMRC said. ‘There are also 23 criminal cases underway, and one man, a plumber, was recently sentenced to jail.’
HMRC’s ‘Tax Return Initiative’, aimed at taxpayers who have outstanding self assessment returns for 2009/10 or earlier, has prompted tax professionals to repeat calls for a general disclosure facility open to all taxpayers.
HMRC said in February that it was planning to invite higher rate taxpayers who had failed to complete returns to make a voluntary disclosure. The department said on 3 July: ‘People have until 2 October 2012 to tell HMRC they want to take part, submit completed returns, and pay the tax and NICs that they owe. By coming forward voluntarily through the campaign customers will receive better terms, and any penalty they pay will be lower than if HMRC comes to them first.
‘After 2 October, if they have not submitted their tax returns and paid what they owe, HMRC will use its powers to pursue outstanding returns and any unpaid tax and NIC. Penalties of up to 100% of the tax due or even criminal investigation could follow.’
‘A big national campaign’
MPs on the Treasury Committee suggested in March that HMRC should consider establishing a general disclosure facility to run alongside its targeted campaigns.
Gary Ashford represents the CIOT on HMRC’s Compliance Reform Forum. Responding to the Treasury Committee’s report, he said there was a danger that a ‘conveyor belt’ of disclosure facilities aimed at different groups would make others who wish to get their tax affairs in order ‘wonder whether they should wait for their opportunity’.
Last week Ashford said many people would be surprised that HMRC had to launch a campaign to bring in tax returns that were at least 17 months late.
‘Rather than continuing to launch different targeted campaigns every few weeks … HMRC should focus their efforts on a big national campaign open to all taxpayers whose tax affairs are not up to date,’ he said. ‘A one-off general disclosure facility that lasts sufficiently long and is sufficiently attractive to get people to come forward to clean the slate would make sense,’ he said.
‘Endless string of amnesties’
George Bull, Senior Tax Partner at Baker Tilly, said HMRC’s ‘belated attempt’ to secure completion of returns begged the question ‘why HMRC hasn’t already pursued the recalcitrants’.
‘It’s not as if HMRC doesn’t know who they are,’ he said. ‘We also have doubts as to whether this amnesty is actually fair. The page on the HMRC website detailing the amnesty suggests that people who sign up … may be treated more leniently than those who have already filed late for any of those years and were charged interest and penalties. That’s a bit like retailers offering better terms to new customers than long-standing, loyal customers.’
HMRC’s guidance says: ‘If you submit your tax returns for 2009/10 or earlier by 2 October 2012 and pay any tax and NICs you owe by then … you will receive the best terms available. The penalty “saving” could be up to 100 % of the tax and NICs payable had the return been submitted by the correct date.’
Bull added: ‘Furthermore, this endless string of amnesties is beginning to reflect badly on the taxman. Why doesn’t HMRC offer a blanket amnesty, giving anybody whose tax affairs are not in good order a once-and-for-all chance to make honest women and men of themselves, before returning to the normal, statutory regime for tax compliance?
HMRC provides Campaign news and updates on its website. Previous campaigns targeted offshore investments, medical professionals, private tutors and coaches, plumbers, electricians, VAT defaulters and online traders.
Those campaigns have yielded ‘nearly £510m from voluntary disclosures and over £120m from non-compliance follow-up from a large number of civil interventions, including over 18,000 completed investigations’, HMRC said. ‘There are also 23 criminal cases underway, and one man, a plumber, was recently sentenced to jail.’
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