Tax Investigations – where might HMRC focus in 2025

Tax Investigations – where might HMRC focus in 2025 Although investigations into tax are not new, HMRC have made it clear that they are recruiting extra staff to complete more ‘compliance checks’ than ever before – so where will they be looking to complete these checks? It is of course expected that HMRC will increase…

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Rent a room tax relief

Rent a room tax relief It is now thought that over 1.8 million UK adults rent out furnished rooms in their homes, which allows them to qualify for up to £7,500 in tax free income under the rent a room scheme. HMRC have advised that £170m was claimed in the tax relief in 2023-24, but…

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Tax Investigations bring in an extra 28% in 2024

Tax Investigations bring in an extra 28% in 2024 HMRC have received extra funding by raking in £45.7bn from tax investigations in 2024, a £10bn rise from the previous year, while over £10bn more in VAT may yet be recovered from large businesses, as we are informed that another 5,000 more compliance officers are being…

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Higher Rate Tax Payers up 43% in the last 3 years

Higher Rate Tax Payers up 43% in the last 3 years In total 2.5m taxpayers will have to pay higher and additional rate tax for the first time, with the situation unlikely to improve before 2029 at the earliest, based on the latest freeze extension announced at the Budget. There will be 6.3m higher rate…

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HMRC to replace Government Gateway accounts with One Login

HMRC to replace Government Gateway accounts with One Login The government is investing millions of pounds in a single login system for taxpayers and agents using online services with the launch of GOV.UK One Login. The new login service which will have two factor authentication and will be rolled out across all government web services…

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20% of tax paid by just 100,000 people

20% of tax paid by just 100,000 people The total receipts for capital gains tax (CGT) and income tax rose to £262.6bn in 2022/23, with the top 100,000 taxpayers paying one fifth of this, meaning almost £4bn being covered by just 100 people, meaning each of these taxpayers paid an average £39m, as revealed analysis…

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Budget 2024 – Higher HMRC interest rates on overdue tax

Budget 2024 – Higher HMRC interest rates on overdue tax As part of measures to clamp down on bad payers, the Chancellor advised that HMRC will have the power to hike up even further the rates of interest they charge. The current HMRC rate on late payment is 7.5%, which is 2.5% over the bank…

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Directors being chased by HMRC

Directors being chased by HMRC Companies who are shutting up shop with money still owed to HMRC are contributing to the UK tax gap which was reportedly almost £40bn in the 2022/23 tax year. Now HMRC are ramping up efforts to stop this by chasing directors and other senior members of these businesses. There were…

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HMRC to hire extra compliance staff

HMRC to hire extra compliance staff The Treasury has announced plans for HMRC to hire an additional 5,000 staff to clamp down on tax cheats and set aside more investment for IT infrastructure. The newly appointed minister responsible for HMRC, James Murray, Exchequer secretary to the Treasury has set out a brief overview of plans…

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HMRC and R&D tax enquiries

HMRC and R&D tax enquiries Most companies making a research and development (R&D) tax relief claim are likely to get a HMRC compliance check at some stage over the years. In the past,checks into research and development (R&D) tax relief claims were considered to be rare and usually linked to an error within a claim.…

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