As part of the measures announced in last week’s government spending review, HMRC is to ‘deliver more than £130m of efficiency savings in 2015/16 through improved productivity and further digital transformation,’ according to the HM Treasury document Spending Round 2013. In his speech delivering the spending review, the chancellor George Osborne said: ‘Despite the fact that [HMRC] will see a 5% reduction in its resource budget, we are committed to extra resources to tackle tax evasion.’
The government also announced HMRC is to target £95m of tax credits ‘error, fraud and debt’ by engaging debt collection agencies and paying them by results. However, the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group said using commercial debt collection tactics to collect debt that is endemic in the system – and often not of the debtor’s making – could have harsh consequences.
As part of the measures announced in last week’s government spending review, HMRC is to ‘deliver more than £130m of efficiency savings in 2015/16 through improved productivity and further digital transformation,’ according to the HM Treasury document Spending Round 2013. In his speech delivering the spending review, the chancellor George Osborne said: ‘Despite the fact that [HMRC] will see a 5% reduction in its resource budget, we are committed to extra resources to tackle tax evasion.’
The government also announced HMRC is to target £95m of tax credits ‘error, fraud and debt’ by engaging debt collection agencies and paying them by results. However, the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group said using commercial debt collection tactics to collect debt that is endemic in the system – and often not of the debtor’s making – could have harsh consequences.
