Last week @TaxAssistUK tweeted a response from HMRC's official Twitter feed @HMRCgovuk to a post that invited followers to discover more about “an interesting way to cheat on income tax.”
This marks a change in tack for HMRC as when they first joined Twitter it was with the purpose to broadcast and not to interact with its followers. This position has, however, altered over recent weeks with the department participating in conversations.
HMRC is increasingly using and taking advantage of technology in taking the fight to tax evaders and this is just one example. The department also uses web crawlers and segments taxpayers into different groups for the purposes of analysing their risk profiles.
The Revenue utilises IDEA software from Caseware to identify specific variances within tax returns that might indicate a potential risk of tax loss. This risk analysis assists HMRC in selecting individuals and businesses for investigation both at tax office level and by the task forces that have been active since last year.
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