Dentists 'may be next for tax scrutiny'

The dental profession could be the next target of the taxman’s scrutiny, tax investigations experts at PKF have warned.

The accountancy group pointed out that HMRC’s tax health plan (THP) ‘amnesty’ announced on Monday was billed as a measure for ‘all medical professionals’.

However, the Revenue did not clarify that it defines medical professionals as doctors and consultants registered with the General Medical Council (GMC), and no one else. 

The department has since confirmed that ‘the positive reaction [to the THP] among wider health professionals groups’ has caused it to ‘reconsider’ the initiative’s criteria. Tax authorities are now in discussions with the General Dental Council over whether dentists can be included.

If the talks fail, HMRC say they have ‘plans to provide similar opportunities to other professional groups, including other health professionals, soon.’

PKF criticised the use of ‘highly selective tax amnesties’ for ‘confusing both the press and the public and putting tax recovery at risk’.

The company’s John Cassidy, tax investigations partner, said, ‘Many in the press, and even in the accountancy profession, took HMRC’s words at face value and assumed dentists and other medical professionals could use the THP to come clean on their taxes.

‘We have learned to be more suspicious of [such] announcements and have formally established that “medical professionals” means just GMC-registered individuals.’

PKF’s national director of medical services, Valerie Martin-Long, welcomed the likely widening of the THP, saying: ‘Doctors and consultants are not the only medical professionals who work long hours and struggle to keep their tax paperwork up to date.

‘It is only fair to give all medical professionals the chance to put things right at the same low cost [of a fixed 10% penalty].’

Issue: 4239 / Categories: News , THP , Admin