Since 2010 HMRC have strengthened their approach from this point of view and there has been a year-on-year increase in the number of tax enquiries opened.
It will come as no surprise to you to hear that HMRC activity is expected to increase in the forthcoming months and years, as HMRC look to recover the enormous government spend through the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as ensuring that the measures put in place to support the economy through this period have been utilised correctly by taxpayers.
In the recent Budget, the government announced that they will invest over £100m in a taskforce of 1,265 HMRC staff to combat the estimated £3.5bn fraudulent claims made in respect of Covid-19 support packages. The task force will target CJRS, the Self-employment Income Support Scheme and will help to police bounce back loans. It therefore appears that the surge in HMRC activity will undoubtedly continue in the coming months and against this back drop the protection afforded by our Tax Enquiry Fee Protection Service, at a relatively modest cost, will have more value in 2021 than ever before.
Our normal annual fees do not cover the additional professional fees of handling tax enquiries and compliance checks. We therefore provide a Tax Enquiry Fee Protection Service, which for a relatively small annual cost, provides protection for our fees incurred in dealing with an enquiry on your behalf.
Importantly, our Tax enquiry policy will cover Covid-19 related enquiries subject to our policy’s Terms and Conditions. Clearly fraudulent claims for any government backed scheme will not be covered.
We therefore strongly recommend that clients are protected against such unexpected costs by renewing this protection or subscribing as soon as possible. We confirm that renewal reminders and new subscriber details are being emailed or posted out to clients over the coming days. Should you have any queries regarding this service, which runs from the 1st July 2021 to the 30th June 2022, then please email or telephone your usual Streets contact or email feeprotection@streetsweb.co.uk
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