HMRC Intelligence
15th May 2015HMRC “Connect” System: Big brother is watching you !
HMRC is gathering an increasing amount of data from a variety of sources about taxpayers using its “Connect” system. Since 2010 HMRC has collected information from organisations such as the banks, the DVLA, local authorities and foreign tax jurisdictions, and uses it to build up a picture of taxpayers’ lifestyles and finances which it can compare with the figures disclosed on tax returns.
More recently, HMRC is making use of social media to help identify tax avoidance and start investigations into businesses and individual taxpayers. According to recent reports, Connect now gives rise to over 80% of all tax enquiries.
There is an increased risk that entirely innocent taxpayers could be subject to enquiry as a result of incomplete or incorrect information gathered by the Connect system.
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Disclaimer - All information in this post was correct at time of writing.