More staff and funding for tax compliance and investigations teams.
HMRC has been given the budget to increase compliance and investigation team headcounts by 1,300, with an expectation that they will raise an additional £4.5bn in tax by 2025, including measures such as a crackdown on taxi firms and scrap metal dealers operating in the grey economy and CIS scheme irregularities.
HMRC has been given further funding to tackle non-compliance in a number of areas. Large businesses will be placed under an obligation to notify HMRC of any tax positions adopted which they expect HMRC to challenge, based on IFRS accounting practices.
Abuses of the CIS scheme will be tackled by allowing HMRC to adjust unverified claims by offset against PAYE from 2022. Previously flagged measures to link the issue of taxi and scrap metal dealer licences with confirmation of tax registration will go ahead from April 2022, giving time for affected businesses to prepare.
HMRC expects to raise an additional £4.5bn from a range of unspecified compliance measures linked to targeting high risk areas of the tax gap, staffed by an additional 1,300 personnel in the compliance teams, implemented from 2019 onwards.
Article from ACCA In Practice