Monday 29 July 2013

Real Time Monitoring


AccountancyAge reports that HMRC is considering daily checks on firms offering aggressive tax avoidance schemes.

At the moment anyone establishing an avoidance scheme must notify HMRC under the Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Schemes (DOTAS) facility within five days of starting to market it to clients.

HMRC can combat schemes in tribunals, but until a verdict is reached advisers can continue to market their avoidance arrangements.

HMRC's plans to monitor accountants in real time will enable it to see the schemes as they are devised, and be blocked before they reach market should they be deemed too aggressive.

The proposals will go under consultation this week.

I wonder how that will work in practice, given HMRC's lack of resources?

Tax does have to be taxing.

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3 comments:

  1. They haven't got sufficient people to answer the phones, but they are going to do a DAILY audit of new DOTAS schemes? That's so far fetched it's hilarious.

    It might be worthwhile recycling some of the old schemes just to see the buggers squirm. Why should we care about wasting HMRC's time?

    They give no concern to wasting ours...

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  2. Nice one HMRC, a bit like when the VAT system went over to relying on standard shipping documents and industry provided manifests as evidence of export. High value goods e.g. duty free exports were previously tallied aboard by Customs in sealed containers. Of course, you had to have sufficient staff at the ports to do this.
    Then along came trade facilitation and revenue protection along with staff and £Bn's of tax evaporated - as long as the paperwork was OK!
    So where will the extra staff come from to do this - they can't come off the phones, they are dragging staff from everywhere else to cover as it is.
    I know, Excom, they do feck all as it is so they must have time on their hands.
    As for RTI - all remaining hands on deck, man the pumps!

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  3. This reads to me like digital Chinese whispers in action. In spite of Accountancy Age's link to (chortle) the Daily Mail website, I can't seem to find their source article, much less an original proposal from HMRC/the government. (I've no doubt that Ken will have found these before posting, so perhaps he'll enlighten me byposting links.) However, reading between the sensationalist lines, it sounds like they're actually just proposing to reduce the 5-day time limit for disclosure so schemes have to be disclosed immediately. If I'm right, this shouldn't have an adverse resource effect.

    Stew G

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