{"id":103,"date":"2007-06-22T15:17:27","date_gmt":"2007-06-22T15:17:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.the-finance-zone.co.uk\/tax\/investors-rush-for-tax-deadline\/"},"modified":"2007-06-22T15:17:27","modified_gmt":"2007-06-22T15:17:27","slug":"investors-rush-for-tax-deadline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/2007\/06\/22\/investors-rush-for-tax-deadline\/","title":{"rendered":"Investors rush for tax deadline"},"content":{"rendered":"

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) says it expects as many as 70,000 people to notify it that they have tax to pay on offshore bank accounts.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

The Revenue says there has been a last-minute rush of people telling them that they will be declaring unpaid tax. <\/span><\/p>\n

HMRC launched its campaign earlier this year after learning that 400,000 UK citizens have offshore bank accounts it did not know about. <\/span><\/p>\n

The deadline for making a notification is midnight tonight.<\/span><\/p>\n

Phone calls<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

According to the BBC, 55,187 people have registered, telling the Revenue they will be paying the extra tax, plus interest, but taking advantage of the reduced 10% penalty charge on offer during the Revenue’s campaign. <\/span><\/p>\n

Of those, 6,675 came forward today, the last day for getting in contact. <\/span><\/p>\n

The campaign got off to a slow start, but calls to the registration hotline have been coming in much faster in the past week. <\/span><\/p>\n

At the Revenue’s call centre in Dundee, 180 of the 700 staff there have been dedicated to answering requests for the HMRC’s 44-page booklet spelling out what taxpayers have to do. <\/span><\/p>\n

So far they have taken 34,000 phone calls there. <\/span><\/p>\n

“We have been very busy indeed with 5,000 calls a day now,” said Phyllis Lyske, the centre’s manager. <\/span><\/p>\n

“I think it has gone very well indeed, it was a bit slow to start with but it has picked up,” she added. <\/span><\/p>\n

Too much work?<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

People in the accountancy profession have suggested that the Revenue may have bitten off more than it can chew. <\/span><\/p>\n

But an HMRC spokesman said it was well prepared. <\/span><\/p>\n

“We think 100,000 of the 400,000 people need to talk to us to get on the straight and narrow,” he said. <\/span><\/p>\n

The department is not taking on extra staff as it feels it has enough to deal with the extra work, though the spokesman admitted this might take some time. <\/span><\/p>\n

“It may take months, even years, but we have people ready to go,” he said. <\/span><\/p>\n

Hidden money<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

As well as dealing with people who confess they have failed to pay enough tax in the past, the Revenue will also have to chase up taxpayers with freshly-discovered offshore accounts who do not make any sort of confession. <\/span><\/p>\n

Some will simply not have any extra tax to pay. <\/span><\/p>\n

But others could find themselves in deep trouble. <\/span><\/p>\n

“I think a lot of people have not paid tax on the principal sum paid into these accounts,” said Ronnie Ludwig, of accountants Saffery Champness. <\/span><\/p>\n

“There is a high likelihood that is what is holding them back.” <\/span><\/p>\n

He cited traders on eBay and people hiding business profits, as well as drug smugglers and money launderers. <\/span><\/p>\n

Taxpayers can register for the Revenue’s offer of reduced penalties by midnight tonight on the internet, or by 8.00pm on the special phone line. <\/span><\/p>\n

But if someone finds they cannot get through the Revenue says it may well accept a slightly late registration if that person has a good excuse. <\/span><\/p>\n

Once a notification has been made the full disclosure, plus the tax, must be made to HMRC by 26 November. <\/span><\/p>\n

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HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) says it expects as many as 70,000 people to notify it that they have tax<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}