Legal News
HMRC to Target Small Businesses (6 January 2012)
Date: 06/01/2012
HM Revenue and Customs is to increase the number of audits it carries out on small businesses. Businesses who fail HMRC’s spot checks to face fines of up to £3,000. Conservative MPs have described the checks on small businesses as disgraceful and claim that inspections must be dropped. HMRC inspectors are to trawl through years of business paperwork to search for insufficient proof of business expenses and income. Business found to have kept insufficient records may face fines. HMRC’s pilot projects have suggested that approximately 12 per cent of businesses would be met with a fine.
John Walker, the Federation of Small Businesses’ chairperson, has told of his concerns over HMRC launching this project, despite the economic climate. Conservative backbenchers have also urged HMRC to reconsider their scheme, claiming that the treatment of small business is unnecessarily harsh. Conservative MP, Priti Patel, has described HMRC’s attitude towards dealing with small businesses as “disgraceful”. She added that their attitude was “counterproductive” at a time in which small firms required all the support they could receive. Ms. Patel has urged HMRC to stop “persecuting” small businesses and to work with them in whatever way they could.
Anne-Marie Morris, a Conservative MP for Newton Abbot, has stated that it was wrong for HMRC to treat very small businesses in the same way as large business, adding that it was “not practical” for small businesses to spend a considerable portion of their time on administration while trying to get their businesses off the ground.
Duncan Lewis’ employment law solicitors can provide legal representation and guidance to all types of small businesses.