HMRC succeeded in securing an additional tax sum of £4 billion during the second quarter of this year due to its investigations into compliance, the latest data has revealed.
The data from PfP, a tax insurance investigator, shows that these inquiries brought the tax body almost twice as much as they did for the same quarter of 2020, when the amount that HMRC avoided losing out on was £2.2 billion. According to PfP, the primary reason for this appears to be that it had more time and employees available for this work with furlough starting to wind down.
HMRC committed a large percentage of its workforce to dealing with that scheme, and now that it is coming to an end, it has much greater manpower to dedicate to tax compliance issues. This can be a thorny area for small businesses in particular, but hiring an accountant to handle tax return services in Goole or anywhere else will reduce the worry.
PfP Managing Director Kevin Igoe told City AM that HMRC prevents this tax money from being lost via cash reclaimed through investigation, and also by making sure it does not give out fraudulent tax rebates. He then added:
“HMRC is showing it is determined not to let tax slip through the net – it will be pushing forward with full force in its tax investigations.”
HMRC is ramping up its bid to ensure that the Treasury does not lose out on money owed due to the need to balance the books following the pandemic.