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Get your tax affairs in order or face severe punishment, HMRC is to warn doctors and dentists.
The department is set to issue cautionary letters to around 2,500 medical professionals, in the latest stage of its tax health plan (THP) to stamp out evasion.
Recipients will be urged to get up to date and inform the Revenue of earnings that have not been levied. A 21-day deadline will be imposed, after which time individuals may be heavily penalised or even face the same level of criminal prosecution that has so far resulted in nine arrests since the tax safe plan for plumbers ended in the summer.
Contents of the letters vary according to the circumstances of the taxpayer. One version includes the claim that ‘nine out of ten people surveyed by Ipsos MORI in 2011 said that they trust their doctor to tell the truth. This makes doctors the most trusted profession in the UK. In keeping with this, our records show that 97% of doctors have filed all their tax returns for the last [sic] four years.’
RSM Tenon’s tax investigations head, Gary Ashford, said HMRC made clear at the January 2001 launch of the THP that the department would adopt a carrot-and-stick approach.
‘They… offered the carrot of a relatively low penalty rate… and 1,500 health professionals took it up, bringing in £10 million for the Exchequer. Now [the Revenue is] wielding the stick at those who have not come forward.
‘People should not underestimate the amount of data HMRC is holding. They have been talking to medical insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and locum agencies,’ added Mr Ashford who represents the Chartered Institute of Taxation on the Revenue’s compliance reform forum.
He warned that tax officials are ‘adopting an increasingly sophisticated approach to their campaigns. As well as threats of prosecution, some of the letters in this latest offensive show that the taxman has adopted nudge theory, trying to shame doctors into acting.’
