Tax Expert Calls On Individuals To Be Proactive

Thousands of UK taxpayers could be affected by today’s change to the list of schemes included in HMRC’s controversial ‘Accelerated Payments’ initiative, warns law firm Irwin Mitchell.

Launched in July 2014, the Finance Act 2014 saw the introduction of Accelerated Payment enables HMRC to issue 90 day demands for payment to anyone who has used an alleged tax avoidance scheme into which an enquiry has been opened.

The laws replace the previous approach whereby if HMRC required an individual to pay tax which it believed had been unfairly claimed, the matter could be appealed through an independent tribunal. Crucially, the individual was not required to pay unless, or until, HMRC won through the courts.

In July, HMRC published details of the schemes affected and as part of its quarterly update it has today released an updated list.

Three schemes have been added and eight have been removed.

Earlier this month HMRC announced that it has sent notices to tax avoidance scheme users to pay over £250 million of disputed tax.

By January 2015, HMRC expects to be issuing 2,500 Accelerated Payment notices per month and by the end of March 2016 expects the scheme to recover over £7 billion of disputed tax.

Phil Berwick, partner* and Head of Contentious Tax at law firm Irwin Mitchell, said:

* Non-lawyer