A consistent approach required
The Tax Health Plan will mean HMRC targeting doctors’ tax affairs using new information powers. Unpaid tax will be collected as well as interest and a fixed 10% penalty. This new approach of targeting particular employment sectors is expected to be used widely in the future.
However, an HMRC campaign has also been put in place to target the owners of fish and chip shops, with no restrictions on the penalties for non-compliance, a situation at odds with the fixed 10% penalty in the case of doctors.
Bob Crawford, Convener of the ICAS Tax Committee, said, “It appears that our chippies are taking a battering compared to our doctors, and there’s no clear reason why. We support HMRC’s continuing efforts to tackle non-compliance, but for any campaign to gain acceptance, the criteria for penalties should be consistently applied. We question why doctors will be dealt with by a 10% fixed penalty, whilst fish and chip shops could be on the hook for a far higher penalty, for similar amounts of unpaid tax.”
Issued: 13 January 2010
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