HMRC has confirmed that from this month it will no longer issue national insurance number cards. The department stopped issuing replacement cards in October 2010 and stopped issuing cards to adults in July 2011.
HMRC issued a further reminder last week that penalties for late filing of self assessment tax returns are changing.
Michael Jack and John Whiting have been appointed as the permanent Chair and Tax Director respectively at the Office of Tax Simplification, and will oversee the OTS’s work for the remainder of the Parliament.
Accountancy firms were responsible for 67 of the 113 direct tax disclosures made to HMRC under the disclosure of tax avoidance schemes regime during the year to 31 March 2011, according to figures released in response to a freedom of information request.
PKF has warned that HMRC’s extended programme of business records checks will ‘waste everyone’s time’, and suggested that HMRC staff employed on the programme could be put to ‘much better use’.
There is a strong argument for pumping extra funds into HMRC’s efforts to reduce the tax gap, according to a leading firm of accountants and business advisers.