Investigations

The government is to go ahead with its controversial proposal to allow HMRC access to taxpayers’ bank and building society accounts.

The power of direct debt recovery (DRD) will allow the Revenue to take payment of tax and tax credit debts from accounts.

It will have effect from the date of royal assent of the summer Finance Bill 2015, while draft secondary legislation will be published with the bill for consultation.

HMRC will receive an extra three quarters of a million pounds to fund their ongoing fight against tax dodging, the chancellor announced this afternoon.

The move to combat non-compliance and criminal activity was welcomed by the Association of Revenue and Customs (ARC), which represents the taxman’s senior staff members. The union’s president, Tony Wallace, claimed the £750m injection “will yield a significant dividend for the country”.

AG Flutter (TC4443)

Almost 51,000 phishing emails were reported to HMRC around 2014’s tax credit season – April to July – marking a 100% rise in the number for the same period the year before, official figures show.

The scam messages frequently offered a refund from a “tax credit office agent”, or included a link to a fake version of the GOV.UK website.

Recipients were often asked to provide bank details or similarly sensitive information. Fraudsters then tried to take money from their victims’ account, or sell the people’s identities to fellow criminals.

E Dunne and V Gray v CRC, Queen’s Bench Division

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J Herbert (TC4395)

The impact of the Liechtenstein disclosure facility’s closure

The Revenue has suspended its notification list of qualifying recognised overseas pension schemes (QROPS), after discovering the inclusion of schemes that do not meet the pension age test.

Payments made by HMRC to informants have hit a record high, according to legal experts.

Tax whistleblowers netted £605,000 in the year ended 31 March 2015, up from £402,000 over the previous 12 months.

The rise was driven in part by a surge in public awareness about the Revenue’s efforts to track down evaders, leading to more individuals alerting the department to possible fraud by former employers or ex-partners, said said City law firm RPC.