Driving Licence Penalty Points System

As was reported recently, there are plans in place to remove HMRC's automatic £100 fine for late self-assessment returns and replace it with a driving licence style points system.

All very well and good that HMRC may have recognised that the automatic fines were bollocks. However, there are a number of potential issues with the proposed new system as noted by the FT:

1  The Association of Taxation Technicians described the reform proposal as sensible, but called for careful consultation on the detail, as it warned that a points system risked throwing up some anomalies.

Yvette Nunn, co-chair of ATT’s technical steering group, said that under a points system previously floated by HMRC, it appeared that “some persistent defaulters might avoid a penalty, while some more compliant taxpayers could incur a penalty”.

2  Paul Aplin, vice-president of ICAEW, said he was pleased that the government was committed to reforming the system. However, he said he was disappointed that immediate action was not being taken to correct the unfairness of the current regime.

“Restoring the previous system would have restored fairness at a stroke and would not have prevented a more comprehensive points based penalty system being introduced subsequently.”

More to the point, HMRC is moving towards issuing higher fines to those it believes deliberately misstated their tax situation.

Needless to say, HMRC will decide who has been "deliberate" and who has been "accidental"!

Tax does have to be taxing.

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