Tax & Accounting News

Tax disclosure move could increase red tape

26/08/2009

The move by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to require 300 banks to had over customer details may lead to further demands being placed on small businesses to provide information on their customers.

According to reports in the Daily Telegraph newspaper, HMRC may now move forward with plans to force all customers to disclose customer payment details, in order to find out whether smaller firms are paying the right level of tax. The report also claimed HMRC could dictate the format the data is provided in, and demand to see deleted data.

However, HMRC said the claims in the report were ‘inaccurate’, and insisted no decisions had yet been made on what powers it would seek in the future.