A new HMRC factsheet, Compliance checks: Serial tax avoidance – warning notices (CC/FS38), outlines the ‘serial tax avoidance’ legislation introduced by Finance Act 2016, including warning notices HMRC may issue to users of tax avoidance schemes that have been defeated.
HMRC guidance includes:
Hire purchase supplies and bad debt relief
Withdrawal of exemption without notice
Non-compliance with formal requirements for exemption
More than one excise duty point
Same evidence may serve more than one purpose
The tax gap, which is the difference between the amount of tax due to HMRC and the amount collected, is estimated to have been £36bn in 2014/15, representing some 6.5% of the total tax and duties due.
HMRC has issued fewer than five conduct notices to promoters of tax avoidance schemes since the power was introduced in 2014, says City law firm RPC.
The House of Commons public accounts committee is to host a global tax transparency summit on 9 December, bringing together parliamentarians from around the world to discuss the promotion of tax transparency and the prevention of tax avoidance.