Why You Need to be More Aware of HMRC Enquiries Due to COVID-19

The Government has made significant financial contributions to British businesses and individuals since the outbreak of COVID-19 to help support them.  We will not know how much the final bill for this will be until after the crisis is over. The current estimate of the Government’s borrowing requirement for the year to April 2021 is a staggering £372bn.

We do know one thing for sure and that is the Government will be looking to recoup as much as possible via taxation to help to repay this debt. One of the main ways that HMRC can increase the tax take, without waiting for tax rates to be increased, will be via enquiries.

Unfortunately, no one is exempt from an HMRC enquiry.  We therefore believe that our Tax Investigation Service is one of the most valuable facilities that we can currently offer clients. The fee to subscribe, in most cases, costs less than one hour of our time.

What the service covers

Business clients

• Full and aspect enquiries into the annual Tax Return
• if you are VAT registered or have employees, we can attend VAT inspection visits and Employer’s compliance/Minimum wage reviews. This gives us the chance to stop or limit any further potentially costly queries arising from HMRC during the course of these visits.
• 24-hour access to a business legal helpline.
• Formal enquiries opened into Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme or Job Support Scheme claims. HMRC have already stated that they will be checking these retrospectively, as they believe that there have been a number of fraudulent or incorrect claims.

Personal tax clients

Full and aspect enquiries into your Tax Return.  Examples of common aspect enquiries that we have seen recently include:-

• Incorrect information being passed by 3^rd parties to HMRC regarding investment income received.
• Queries regarding one-off complex transactions, such as the disposal of land or property and shares.
• Errors in the information given to us and therefore the figures reported on the Tax Return.
• Child Benefit being claimed omitted from the Tax Return.
• Student loan repayments from a long forgotten loan missed from the Tax Return.
• Pensions savings tax charges.

The service will cover any formal enquiries opened into Coronavirus Self Employment Income Support Scheme claims. HMRC have already stated that they will be checking these retrospectively, as they believe that there have been a number of fraudulent or incorrect claims.

We are currently contacting all of our clients who are eligible for this service and did not subscribe earlier this year to ask them to reconsider this.  In the meantime, if you would like to subscribe or wish further information, please do not hesitate to contact Ann McQueen.