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HMRC publishes three consultations on tackling the hidden economy
Practical Law UK Legal Update w-003-2749 (Approx. 3 pages)
HMRC publishes three consultations on tackling the hidden economy
by Practical Law Business Crime and Investigations
| Published on 30 Aug 2016 • England, Wales |
HMRC has published three consultations on tackling the hidden economy: on conditionality, on sanctions and on the extension of data gathering powers to money service businesses. The consultations close on 21 October 2016.
HM Government is proposing new plans to tackle individuals and businesses that evade or avoid paying their fair share of tax. This is described as the "hidden economy" and includes both businesses who fail to register for tax and individuals who fail to declare a source of income that should be taxed. HM Government calculates the tax gap from the hidden economy at £6.2billion per annum. For more information, see Practice note, HMRC criminal investigation policy.
HMRC has published the following consultations:
- Tackling the hidden economy: Conditionality, which seeks to make access to business services or licenses dependant on tax registration.
- Tackling the hidden economy: Sanctions, which seeks to create new sanctions to tackle hidden economic activity.
- Tackling the hidden economy: Extension of data-gathering powers to Money Service Businesses, which proposes to extend HMRC’s bulk data-gathering powers to include customer data held by money service businesses (MSBs), which will help identify non-compliant customers trading in the hidden economy.
The proposals for sanctions include changes to the failure to notify penalties and inaccurate returns to make them progressively stronger for repeated breaches and increased monitoring of individuals and businesses engaged in hidden economic activity.
The consultations are open until 21 October 2016.