HMRC raised an additional £3.5bn in 2014/15 through enquiries into small business VAT underpayments. According to tax investigation insurers PfP, VAT investigations accounted for 45% of additional revenues from local compliance teams in 2014/15. The total sum raised through local compliance investigations last year was £7.7bn.
Commenting on these figures, Kevin Igoe, managing director of PfP, said that with a ‘hardcore’ of VAT-evading SMEs, ‘VAT investigations represent a rich seam for HMRC and the area is coming under increasing focus as a result’. The concern is that those making innocent mistakes on returns find themselves ‘in the firing line’.
The combination of specialist taskforces and HMRC’s ‘connect’ data analytics system are ‘forming a pincer movement’, increasing the pressure on businesses who report incorrectly on returns.
HMRC raised an additional £3.5bn in 2014/15 through enquiries into small business VAT underpayments. According to tax investigation insurers PfP, VAT investigations accounted for 45% of additional revenues from local compliance teams in 2014/15. The total sum raised through local compliance investigations last year was £7.7bn.
Commenting on these figures, Kevin Igoe, managing director of PfP, said that with a ‘hardcore’ of VAT-evading SMEs, ‘VAT investigations represent a rich seam for HMRC and the area is coming under increasing focus as a result’. The concern is that those making innocent mistakes on returns find themselves ‘in the firing line’.
The combination of specialist taskforces and HMRC’s ‘connect’ data analytics system are ‘forming a pincer movement’, increasing the pressure on businesses who report incorrectly on returns.
