HMRC gun for ‘easy target’ small firms

Small and medium sized businesses are an “easy target” and a significant area of HMRC’s cash drive activity, according to UHY Hacker Young.

The top 20 firm found via HMRC’s annual report and a freedom of information request that the extra tax yield from compliance investigations into small firms by HMRC had jumped 39% in the last year. On top of taxes already paid by these businesses HMRC took £434m in extra tax and fines in 2011/12, up from £311m in 2010/11.

Roy Maugham, tax partner at UHY Hacker Young, said in a press statement: “HMRC has been set a challenging tax yield target by the Chancellor, and small businesses have found that they are an easy target for HMRC’s crackdown.”

Full report from AccountingWEB here.