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Bridging the gap

06 August 2013 / Sean Wakeman
Issue: 4414 / Categories: Comment & Analysis , amnesty , LDF , tax gap , Admin , Investigations

It is time for a general tax amnesty

KEY POINTS

  • Interest and penalties should be included in the tax gap.
  • A large majority of accountants surveyed favour a general tax amnesty.
  • The Liechtenstein disclosure facility (LDF) shows a possible way forward.
  • Do existing amnesties favour the wealthy?
  • A five-year amnesty period would allow the potential benefits to be maximised.

]The report Measuring Tax Gaps 2012 which was released in October 2012 sought to define and quantify the tax gap across all taxes administered by HMRC. The tax gap is the difference between tax collected and the “theoretical liability” ie the tax that should be collected.

The theoretical tax liability represents the tax that would be paid if everyone complied with both the letter of the law and HMRC’s interpretation of the intentions of parliament...

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