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Home Local News Parliament Articles Speeches Richard Media South Norfolk Expenses Contact
| HMRC ‘becoming a
punchline’, says MP |
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HMRC does not know which businesses persistently fail to submit both their VAT and Company Tax returns |
South Norfolk MP Richard Bacon has said that HM Revenue and Customs, the troubled department at the heart of the lost disc scandal, is becoming a punchline, as a new report finds that there are deficiencies in HMRC’s management information.
Mr Bacon said:
“In the wake of the lost data scandal, it will surprise no-one that HMRC has holes in its management information. HMRC really is in a mess if it doesn’t know which businesses are persistently failing to submit their tax returns”. |
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“The name ‘HM Revenue & Customs’ is fast becoming the punch line to a very bad joke. HMRC must get a grip on its management information and find out which businesses are not paying their taxes or submitting their returns. Until HMRC addresses these issues, billions of pounds in unpaid tax will be put at risk every year”. Mr Bacon was speaking as the Commons public accounts committee published its report into the filing of VAT and Company Tax returns. Some 1.8 million businesses are registered for VAT and 1.8 million companies registered to file Company Tax returns. 600,000 businesses file both types of return. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) collects £129 billion a year in VAT and Corporation Tax from these businesses. However, the report finds that at least £1.5 billion of tax revenue was estimated to be in doubt from late and missing returns in October 2006. HMRC does not know which businesses persistently failed to submit a return or how many businesses fail to submit both their VAT and Company Tax returns. It also had no detailed understanding of whether there was a link between late filing and inaccurate returns.
4 December 2007 See also:
PAC REPORT:
Filing of VAT and Company Tax returns PARLIAMENT:
Multiple forms taxing new businesses PARLIAMENT:
MP questions loss of taxpayer records
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| © Richard Bacon 2010 | ||||||||
