HMRC rake in £32 million early doors
HMRC has secured nearly all of the tax the department demanded by way of Accelerated Payment notices issued to the first tax avoidance scheme users.
About 30 scheme users were told in late August they had 90 days to pay a total of around £29 million of disputed tax upfront under the new Accelerated Payments regime.
Over 99% of this money was paid within the deadline, with several payment arrangements also in place. Taking into account payments received from those who have not yet passed the 90 day payment deadline, HMRC has received £32 million in disputed tax to date.
Financial Secretary to the Treasury David Gauke said, “The high success rate for the first set of Accelerated Payments notices shows avoidance scheme users are having to face up to the reality that they should pay their tax upfront, like the vast majority of taxpayers.
As we move into 2015 and HMRC ramps up the number of notices it sends out, thousands more will get the message that Accelerated Payments has changed the economics of tax avoidance.”
Jennie Granger, Director General for Enforcement and Compliance HMRC, said, “These results show HMRC is making good progress in tackling marketed tax avoidance. If anyone is concerned about being able to pay an Accelerated Payment notice, they should contact us as soon as possible to discuss their options.”
“over 30 scheme users” – is this intended to mean the users of 30 schemes or, 30 individual cases of scheme users, as it actually reads.
If the latter, the average tax is almost £1M per case, suggesting that HMRC has prioritised the larger cases (sensibly for once) and, by definition, those that are probably in a position to pay up.
It would also mean that any consequent expectation that the near 100% collection rate will be replicated when notices start to reach the thousands of small individual contractor loan cases, for e.g., where the tax payers probably have little or no means of paying, would be seriously ill founded.
Conversely, if this represents a larger cross section, the result is most surprising.
Does anyone know the order of issue that HMRC is observing over the 20 month period?
Exellent news. Keep sending those letters to the parasites.