Enquiries increase by nearly 25%

HMRC conducted 5 000 more enquiries into tax credit awards in 2015-16 than in the previous year. The 25 755 enquiries were made under the Tax Credits Act 2002 s 19. In 2014-15 the figure was 20 714 according to the department’s annual report to the Treasury on tax credits.

The report states there were 16 266 cases when a penalty was imposed for offences related to tax credits compared with 14 335 in 2014-15. HMRC imposed 17 577 individual penalties – when a case or award is a joint or household claim two penalty notices can be given split between the couple.

There were 241 prosecutions and 238 convictions for tax credit fraud in 2015-16 (197 and 184 in 2014-15).

The number of tax credit awards had not been finalised at 5 April 2016. But based on information held on that date...