achieved £210 million in cost efficiencies last year, through continuing to reduce estates, workforce, IT and procurement costs. This brings total sustainable cost savings over the past four years to £991 million – exceeding the target by £25 million secured and protected a record £26.6 billion in additional compliance yield, by continuing to crack down on those who cheat the tax system. This is £8 billion more than in 2011-12 handled 72.5 per cent of 65 million customer calls (down from 79 per cent in 2013-14) and 70 per cent of the 15 million items of customer post received processed within 15 working days (down from 83 per cent in 2013-14) implemented big initiatives and flagship policies for customers, including: o a new Needs Extra Support telephone and mobile adviser service to support vulnerable customers o a £2,000 Employment Allowance for more than a million small employers prosecuted 1,289 cases, predominately for tax-related crimes — securing a collective total of 407 years in prison sentences protected £9.79 billion in tax through successful litigation secured important new tools, including Accelerated Payments powers, which brought in £800 million from tax avoiders last year, and the Diverted Profits Tax, which will shortly secure more tax from multinationals which try to move their profits to other countries reduced error and fraud in the tax credit system to 4.4 per cent – the lowest level ever. HMRC also published the Tax Assurance Commissioner’s Annual Report , which is an established part of their commitment to transparency. It sets out how HMRC’s strengthened governance procedures for resolving tax disputes under civil law procedures operated during 2014-15.
Consultation on improving large business tax compliance 29 July 2015
A consultation has been published which proposes a legislative requirement for all large businesses to publish their tax strategy enabling public scrutiny of their approach towards tax planning and tax compliance.
At Summer Budget 2015 , the government confirmed its intention to consult on measures intended to improve large business tax compliance.
The consultation ‘ Improving Large Business Tax Compliance ’ includes proposals to introduce:
A legislative requirement for all large businesses to publish their tax strategy, enabling public scrutiny of their approach towards tax planning and tax compliance; A voluntary ‘Code of Practice on Taxation for Large Business’, which sets out the behaviours which HMRC expects from its large business customers; and A narrowly targeted ‘Special Measures’ regime to tackle the small number of large businesses that persistently undertake aggressive tax planning, or refuse to engage with HMRC in an open and collaborative manner. These measures are designed to drive further behavioural change in the large business population, embedding best practice in tax compliance in the population as a whole and equipping HMRC with additional tools to tackle the small number of large businesses which continue to engage in tax avoidance or aggressive tax planning, or resist full and open engagement with HMRC.
This consultation closes on 14 October 2015.
Payroll company director counting his way to jail 10 August 2015
The director of three payroll and book-keeping companies stole over £250,000 to keep his business afloat by pocketing his employees’ tax and National Insurance Contributions (NICs) and failing to pay VAT bills has been jailed for two years. Andrew Bettis was the director of three companies based in Chelmsford in Essex that offered book-keeping and payroll services to local businesses. When HMRC officers visited the businesses to check their records they found that a number of VAT and PAYE returns had not been completed or contained wrong information. The investigation that followed revealed that Bettis had deducted PAYE and NICs from his employees between 2007 and 2014, but hadn’t paid a penny to HMRC.
CIPP Policy News Journal
25/04/2016, Page 204 of 453
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