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HMRC will receive an extra three quarters of a million pounds to fund their ongoing fight against tax dodging, the chancellor announced this afternoon.
The move to combat non-compliance and criminal activity was welcomed by the Association of Revenue and Customs (ARC), which represents the taxman’s senior staff members. The union’s president, Tony Wallace, claimed the £750m injection “will yield a significant dividend for the country”.
HMRC will receive an extra three quarters of a million pounds to fund their ongoing fight against tax dodging, the chancellor announced this afternoon.
The move to combat non-compliance and criminal activity was welcomed by the Association of Revenue and Customs (ARC), which represents the taxman’s senior staff members. The union’s president, Tony Wallace, claimed the £750m injection “will yield a significant dividend for the country”.
He added, “ARC has built a strong consensus among those who share our view. Senior figures from the CBI employers group, the ACCA, the Tax Justice Network and Tax Research UK all agree that the collection of tax is arguably the most important business of government.”
BDO tax partner David Brookes said the financial boost for HMRC investigators represented a “return to the ‘spend to save’ policies of previous governments and, on the surface, seem like a sensible move”, but he warned that the department “may direct these extra resources to easier targets by enquiring into the affairs of law abiding taxpayers who may have made innocent mistakes”.
The measures unveiled in today’s Budget meant to clampdown on artificial avoidance and evasion were “no ‘rabbit out of the hat’ as we have seen in the past”, according to Chris Bates, tax partner at law group Norton Rose Fulbright.
“The devil is in the detail, however, which we are yet to see.”
The Revenue is expected to be able to triple its number of investigations into complex crimes, but the summer Budget missed the opportunity to address aggressive tax planning by global businesses, claimed Christian Aid.
“We welcome today’s commitment to increase HMRC’s resources to tackle tax dodging in the UK, but only a thorough and transparent review of all tax breaks will reveal which bring true benefits to society,” said the charity’s director of policy and public affairs, Christine Allen.
“More broadly, this Budget did not effectively address the scale of the tax dodging challenge, particularly in developing countries… The government should set the global standard by insisting on making [multinationals’ profits and tax payments] public, so that people in developing countries can see what taxes companies are paying in their communities.”
"HMRC will receive an extra three quarters of a million pounds..." - surely that should be three quarters of a billion?