It is possible that up to £3.5bn in Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme payments may have been claimed fraudulently or paid out in error.
HMRC told the Public Accounts Committee it estimates that 5-10% of £35BN furlough cash has been wrongly awarded.
Jim Harra, said:
"We have made an assumption for the purposes of our planning that the error and fraud rate in this scheme could be between 5% and 10%.
That will range from deliberate fraud through to error."
NB: that is based on HMRC's assumption, rather than any actual facts.
Tax does have to be taxing.
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I saw another study that said the fraud rate was likely to be as high as 15%.
ReplyDeleteI think this says more about society than HMRC, who had to implement furlough speedily.
Knowing the scarce investigation resources, it will be extremely difficult to claw this back and put culprits through the criminal justice system.
I would personally give some high profile businesses (who were vocal about lockdown & creative with their interpretation of the law) a very thorough audit. Any evidence of fraudulent behaviour from them with regards furlough and the full weight of the criminal justice system should be used.
No deals. A fast tracked highly publicised trial with resultant convictions would set a great example.
It always irked me that there were more benefits investigators than criminal tax investigators as tax evasion dwarfed benefit fraud.
"It always irked me that there were more benefits investigators than criminal tax investigators as tax evasion dwarfed benefit fraud."
ReplyDeleteThis ^^^^^
Well said, my thoughts completely.
Delete