News

HMRC recovered £1.1bn tax from transfer pricing enquiries during 2013/14, double the amount collected the previous year, according to official statistics.

Financial secretary to the Treasury David Gauke claimed the increase was due to the additional funding given to the Revenue “to challenge multinational groups to ensure the rules are followed and the right tax paid”.

The specialist HMRC unit that examines pricing within multinationals has secured a total of £5.8bn in tax since being launched in 2008.

France gives okay to information-share with agencies outside HMRC

Revenue addresses evasion controversy

Audit office praises department’s approach to recommendations

The HMRC division dedicated to investigating the affairs of affluent taxpayers collected £137.2m in additional tax in 2013/14, up from £85.7m in 2012/13, an increase of 62%, according to law firm Pinsent Masons.

Around 500,000 individuals are potential targets of the Revenue team that focuses on UK residents with an annual income in excess of £150,000 or wealth of more than £1m. They are people not deemed rich enough to be the concern of the tax department’s high net-worth unit.

HMRC have extended the registration deadline of their contractor loan settlement opportunity.

Taxpayers now have until 30 June to notify the department that they wish to take part in the tax disclosure facility that was originally scheduled to close on 9 January.

A contractor loan scheme settlement is an arrangement in which a non-UK employer pays a worker untaxed income or a loan, instead of all or part of a salary. Individuals who take part in such a scheme may still have to pay income tax.

An accountant who grossly under-declared his income has been jailed for 16 months, after pleading guilty to seven tax fraud offences totalling in excess of £65,000.

HMRC found Stephen Douce, co-director of ACA Accountancy Services Ltd, Derby, claimed he and his wife both had an annual household income of only £4,500, when in fact he earned more than £56,000 a year.

His false self assessment submissions meant he evaded income tax and National Insurance contributions of £18,203.79 for himself and £1,591.21 for his wife.

Horses’ mobile homes are the latest target for HMRC investigators in their efforts to weed out tax evaders, experts have warned.

The Revenue suspects that some farmers and other rural concerns dishonestly claim luxury horseboxes as business expenses, according to accountancy group UHY Hacker Young, while other countryside firms fail to declare personal use of the vehicles, to dodge tax on benefits in kind.

The government does not plan to give itself powers to significantly alter the direct recovery of debts (DRD) rules by statutory instrument, Taxation has learned, following fears of a legal provision to enable the amendment of primary legislation.

HMRC have launched a consultation on the closure rules for enquiries, to examine the current process and the restrictions it puts on the department in resolving one or more aspects of an enquiry.

The Revenue is seeking views on plans to streamline the system by enabling tax officials to obtain early closure of one or more facets of an enquiry, when it is not appropriate to close the whole matter.

A tax agent who lied to cover up incorrect returns submitted for clients has been convicted of six offences, under the Fraud Act after an investigation by HMRC.

Christopher Jonathan Lunn who worked at his father’s company, Christopher Lunn & Co, sent false invoices to the Revenue to cover up an increase in the amount charged for accountancy fees on behalf of his employer’s clients.

Clients were given one low-cost bill for accountancy services, but they were increased when their accounts were submitted to the taxman.

Tax experts have applauded the government’s decision to water down controversial plans to give HMRC extra tax debt-collection powers.

Extra safeguards and additional time for consultation on direct recovery of debts (DRD) mean the measure will be delayed until after next year’s general election.