Top doctors face NDO-style scrutiny

The offshore bank accounts of senior doctors are likely to be the next targets of investigation by tax authorities, and members of other professions and trades may also face scrutiny in the future, according to Baker Tilly.

On the day (4 January) of the registration deadline for HMRC’s new disclosure opportunity (NDO), the business advice group has claimed the Revenue is considering a similar ‘amnesty’ geared towards medical consultants.

The planned move is part of a strategy of probing the medical profession, which includes a number of status enquiries and investigations into NHS Trusts.

The taxman has recently targeted hospital consultants over motor and travel expenses between home and hospitals, regardless of whether there were valid grounds for claiming the home as the base of the consultancy operations, said Baker Tilly.

HMRC have identified at least a further 800 consultants to be investigated in 2010, and the department is proposing to move the emphasis away from travel expenses.

It is understood that the Revenue has issued formal notices to a number of institutions that pay commission to hospital consultants, to check the commissions paid against tax return entries. 

‘The use of the so-called tax amnesty is a low cost method of collecting unpaid tax: a kind of enquiry self-assessment,’ said Julie Cameron of Baker Tilly’s tax risk and investigations management group.

‘It could be that we will see them adopted as a general strategy, and other groups will gradually be targeted.’

Last autumn, Taxation learned that despite assurances given by HMRC that the NDO would be ‘the last of its kind’, more dislosure deals with greater focus were not being ruled out.
 

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