HMRC warns taxpayers to be wary of scam emails

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has issued a warning to people who receive tax credits that scam emails are being sent out in a bid to obtain personal details.

Fraudsters are sending the emails as they try to extract card details and passwords from unsuspecting recipients, who believe that the emails have been sent by HMRC.

Around 22,000 phishing emails were reported to HMRC between April and July last year, when the tax credit renewals period was taking place.

The taxation body has warned that it is expecting a similar number of scam emails to be reported this year as recipients of tax credits update their records on HMRC’s systems. The body has confirmed that it will never contact customers via email in order to ask for personal or payment information, so to be wary of any emails they do receive in that vein.

Nick Lodge, director general of benefits and credits at HMRC, told the BBC: “HMRC will never ask you to disclose personal or payment information by email. We are committed to your online security, but the methods fraudsters use to obtain information are constantly changing, so you need to be alert.”

More than 140 scam websites pretending to be HMRC’s official site were shut down last year across the globe.

Millions owed tax refund, HMRC confirms

Tax refunds for the 2012-13 tax year are owed to millions, according to HM Revenue & Customs.

As many as 3.5 million people have overpaid on their tax bills over the course of the 2012-13 tax year, and are owed refunds totalling anywhere from £350 to £500, the taxation body has confirmed.

However, there was also bad news for many taxpayers, with HMRC saying that two million people owe the Revenue between £400 and £500 after underpaying to varying degrees through PAYE.

The taxation body’s end of year reconciliation process – during which is checks that the amount of tax and national insurance deducted by employers tallies with the data it has on its records – began this week. It is due to be finished in October this year.

Taxpayers who have paid too much tax will receive a "payable order" from early next month, while those who have underpaid tax will likely get a tax code change, meaning that they will pay back the tax they owe though deductions from their salary over the course of the 2014-15 tax year. A letter will be sent out supplying more information, HMRC confirmed.

Elmbridge residents pay billions in tax

Residents in one of Surrey’s leafy boroughs pay a whopping £1.18 billion in tax, it has been reported.

According to media reports, the tax bill of Elmbridge is more than the tax contributions of Newcastle and Cardiff added together. An article in the Daily Mail also notes that it’s, “200 times more [tax] than from Google”.

It’s little wonder Elmbridge’s tax bill is so high, given some of the big names that live there, including Jamie and Louise Redknapp, Ronnie Wood from the Rolling Stones, Chris Tarrant, Andy Murray, John Terry and Frank
Lampard.

After Elmbridge, Glasgow (£898 million) is next on the list of top taxpayers, followed by Sheffield (£812 million), Aberdeen (£728 million), Cardiff (£589 million) and Newcastle (£443 million). This is according to figures from accountancy firm UHY Hacker Young.

The findings suggest there is still a north/south divide when it comes to earnings. Mark Giddens, Head of Private Client Services at UHY Hacker Young, said: “There is a growing regional mismatch, with wealth and tax bills becoming concentrated within a handful of cities home to lucrative industries, or a collection of leafy suburbs”.

He added: “Governments have attempted to boost the attractiveness of other regions in the UK to top earners, even encouraging some public sector organisations to relocate to different parts of the UK. However, the pull of the South East, culturally, politically, and financially is still very strong for the highest earners.”

'Deliberate defaulters' named and shamed by HMRC

HMRC has released a list of individuals and businesses that are guilty of ‘deliberately defaulting’ on their tax debts, in the hope that they will be named and shamed.

Amongst the latest to appear on the taxation body’s list include a Manchester-based pub landlord who has already been fined £16,000 for unpaid debts totalling £26,000, and a Peterborough-based kebab shop owner who is in line to receive a £22,000 penalty for failing to pay the £41,000 he owes in unpaid taxes.

The taxation body publishes the details regarding those who have made deliberate mistakes on their tax returns, or who have been found to be “deliberately failing to comply with their tax obligations", under a change in the law from the Finance Act 2009. HMRC will only publish details relating to those who have been investigated by the body, and who have outstanding tax debts of more than £25,000.

The naming and shaming of such individuals has been criticised by some, with suggestions that both the Government and HMRC should be cracking down on the tax avoidance employed by large firms before that linked to individuals and smaller businesses.

Partner at international law firm Pinsent Masons, Phil Berwick, told The Telegraph newspaper that the body was also raising the levels of fines in a bid to stamp out tax evasion.

“HMRC is cracking down harder than ever before on those that owe tax debts," he said. "Where taxpayers deliberately underpay, HMRC is seeking a very significant level of penalty. HMRC is sending a message that if a business or individual fails to co-operate with them, not only will they be named and shamed, they could be hit with a huge fine.

"Businesses or individuals need to take advantage of any opportunity HMRC gives them to co-operate on tax irregularities before they get hit by a penalty. The scale of some of these fines shows that HMRC is quite prepared to put an uncooperative company or individual out of business,” Mr Berwick went on to say.

Glitch in HMRC's RTI software leads to PAYE woes

Problems with the free software provided by HMRC to allow small businesses to manage PAYE submissions have been acknowledged by the taxation body.

The Basic PAYE Tools (BPT) software package – which is aimed at companies with nine or fewer members of staff – is meant to work out national insurance and tax contributions for each payroll cycle. It is then meant to report it to HMRC in real-time, however the glitch has meant that the software is failing to file the PAYE submissions.

When employers log onto the software they are met with an error message if they attempt to make PAYE submissions, and taxpayers who call the helpline are met with a recorded message acknowledging the issue. It is thought that the fault is due to a Windows update, which led to the removal of a Windows registry key, which is needed to allow the software to function in its entirety.

An HMRC spokesman said: “As with any major change, a few initial problems have been identified and these are being resolved quickly. The issue referred here is not a BPT fault, but we have published guidance to help those employers affected to resolve it. The vast majority of BPT users who have already started to report PAYE in real time are successfully submitting returns without any issue.”