Members of a House of Lords committee have called on HMRC to “constantly review” the business practices of its contractors after it emerged that 15 were known to have used a controversial tax-avoidance measure the department is cracking down on.
Lord Bridges of Headley said that HMRC needed to practise what it preached following a session of the upper chamber’s Economic Affairs Finance Bill Sub-Committee that heard HMRC knew people who worked for it had used so-called disguised remuneration schemes.
HMRC, quoted by CSW, said that it had "never endorsed or participated in disguised remuneration tax avoidance schemes".
"It is possible for contractors to use disguised remuneration without the participation or knowledge of their engager.
"Whenever it is discovered that a contractor, providing services to HMRC or RCDTS, is currently using a disguised remuneration scheme, HMRC (acting as the engager of contingent workers) acts promptly to terminate the relevant engagements.
"We do not investigate these cases any differently to other cases of suspected disguised remuneration, we are even-handed and treat all taxpayers equally.
"We continue to warn people about the risks of using tax avoidance schemes and our advice remains true – if something looks too good to be true, it almost certainly is."
Tax does have to be taxing.
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You would think that getting ones house in order firstly would have been a priority for HMRC, but no, once again the shambles that is HMRC prevails. Using contractors that are using tax avoidance schemes whilst carrying out work for the tax authority, you just couldn't make it up.
ReplyDeleteKnowing how HMRC conduct their shambles of an organisation, it wouldn't at all suprise me if the contractors paid via tax avoidance schemes were actually paid by HMRC (counter avoidance) to investigate the use of tax avoidance schemes.
ReplyDelete