HMRC pledged £25m already
More than 600 Accelerated Payment notices have been sent to those individuals involved in affected tax avoidance schemes, since late August. The total tax being demanded comes to over £250 million and despite having 90 days to pay the tax, some avoidance scheme users have apparently already begun to contact HMRC and to make arrangements to clear over £25 million of tax.
Other tax avoidance scheme participants are volunteering to settle their tax affairs rather than wait to receive an Accelerated Payment notice.
By January of next year, HMRC will be issuing 2,500 notices per month and is on course to deliver notices to 43,000 tax avoidance scheme users, demanding a whopping total of £7.1 billion of disputed tax, by the end of March 2016.
Financial Secretary to the Treasury, David Gauke, said:
“Accelerated Payments are changing the economics of avoidance by removing the cash flow advantage that avoidance scheme users have 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.”
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