Tax investigations

This is a really interetsing piece of news - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-27576626

About three years ago, I went on a tax investigations conference. One of the main reasons I went was because the head of HMRC"s Investigation Strategy Unit was giving a talk, says Phil Harris of Harris & Co accountants Northampton, the specialist small business accountants.

The Head of HMRC explained that they had 25% fewer tax inspectors due to the cuts and were due to lose a further 25%. As a result, they had to focus more on getting the biggest payback for their efforts. In order to do this, they had decided that there was little point in investigating small businesses as there was usually little tax to recover in relation to the effort to be expended. Instead, they would look to focus on big businesses, tax avoidance schemes and areas that they knew were rife with abuse.

I"ve been telling our clients for several years now to steer clear of tax avoidance schemes as they are guaranteed to be litigated against and involve years of stress and anxiety. It seems that several celebrities are finally getting that message!