HM Revenue and Customs has sent notices to tax avoidance scheme users to pay over £250 million of disputed tax under the Accelerated Payments regime introduced in this year’s Finance Act. Accelerated Payments are changing the economics of avoidance by removing the cash-flow advantage that avoidance scheme users have had until now. It is only fair that those who use avoidance schemes should have to pay their tax upfront, like the vast majority of other taxpayers who don’t try to shirk their responsibilities.
HMRC will be issuing 2,500 Accelerated Payment notices per month by January 2015, and it is on track to deliver notices to 43,000 tax avoidance scheme users, covering £7.1 billion of disputed tax, by the end of March 2016.
