HMRC have realised if they really want to bring the bacon home they should lay off the plumbers and hairdressers and go for the people who actually have money. Today it looks like they’ve made their first move on Middle England.

It has started with an amnesty which is another way of saying, “This is your last chance to come clean…”

The headline in today’s Telegraph, reads: Partial amnesty for middle class taxpayers and the strap reads, Tens of thousands of middle class taxpayers are to be offered a partial amnesty if they settle unpaid bills before October.

Here’s the first two pars of the article.

HM Revenue and Customs is writing to anyone who should be paying tax at 40 per cent or 50 per cent but has failed to comply with a request to fill in a self-assessment tax return for the tax year 2009-10 or earlier.

People who have not completed self-assessment forms will be given three months to declare untaxed income earned before 2010. Those coming forward will face reduced penalties of £200 plus a fine equivalent to 10 per cent of the unpaid tax.

The fines are normally up to 100 per cent of unpaid tax and spot fines of more than £1,000. Taxpayers refusing the “last chance” offer will face aggressive criminal prosecutions.

Ministers hope that the initiative, based on previous amnesty schemes, could help to raise hundreds of millions of pounds in unpaid tax.

HM Revenue and Customs is writing to anyone who should be paying tax at 40 per cent or 50 per cent but has failed to comply with a request to fill in a self-assessment tax return for the tax year 2009-10 or earlier.

Full article here.