Thanks to the thorough vetting of the bills by people so obviously intellectually superior to the proletariat, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs have from 1st April 2009 much greater powers of investigation than they used to have. Gone are the closed periods that Self Assessment introduced in the late 1990′s where the revenue only had limited time windows to investigate and in come the powers to enter your home, or in MP’s cases multiple homes to conduct their investigations. What wonderful foresight the honorable members of parliament had to bring in this legislation just weeks before country wide revelations that a group of powerful politically motivated individuals had been abusing their expenses system to fill their boots at the taxpayers expense including, but not limited to, having their houses cleaned, the lawn mowed, the household food shopping paid for, multimedia cinema’s, massage chairs, accomodation costs that were not actually incurred and all other manner of benefits in kind which of course are taxable benefits under current UK law and which the ordinary proles of the country ordinarily pay for out of their already taxed income.
It was indeed the absolute distillation of wisdom that these genii repealed long standing protections offered to taxpayers and introduced provisions under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act.
If you are a trough truffling MP looking to understand more about the powers you may be subjected to here is a summary.
- The Finance Act 2007 (sections 82 to 86 and Schedule 23) included provisions dealing with search warrants, production orders and powers of arrest. These apply the rules in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) to all HMRC criminal investigations. Previously they applied only when investigating criminal offences involving former HM Customs and Excise functions. Some tax specific powers such as the power of arrest in section 72(9) of VATA 1994 have been replaced with the general powers in PACE. PACE does not apply in Scotland. In that case the Finance Act has introduced a set of powers that can be used in criminal investigations in Scotland. These changes were announced in Budget Note 78.
- In the same Finance Act 2007 a new penalty regime was introduced which apply initially to Income Tax (including Self Assessment), VAT, employers paying PAYE, National Insurance contributions, Corporation Tax, Capital Gains Tax and the Construction Industry Scheme. They will apply, for these taxes, to errors in tax returns or other documents, for periods starting on or after 1 April 2008, that are due to be filed on or after 1 April 2009.
- The Finance Act 2008 (section 123 and Schedule 41) introduced an extended and adapted new penalty framework to cover penalties for failure to register or notify HMRC of a new taxable activity across all the taxes, levies and duties administered by HMRC from 1st April 2009.
- The Finance Act 2008 also includes introduced new rules for checking that businesses and individuals have paid the correct amount of PAYE, VAT, income tax, capital gains tax and corporation tax or claimed the correct reliefs and allowances. The three elements explained by Budget Note 97 are:
- new inspection and information powers Finance Act 2008 section 113 & 114 and Schedule 36
- aligned and modernised record keeping requirements Finance Act 2008 section 115 and Schedule 37
- aligned and modernised time limits for making tax assessments and claims Finance Act 2008 section 118 and Schedule 39
- HMRC also now have powers under The Serious Crime Act 2007
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