New Revenue Powers from April 2009

Business people have been used to Revenue officials visiting them to examine their VAT Returns and to give employment compliance checks, however a fundamental additional power has been awarded to those in the employ of HMRC. With effect from April 2009 they will begin compliance visits to monitor a person’s “tax position”. 

The implications of this are far reaching. It has effectively given the Revenue the right to conduct a fishing expedition as they can check past, present and future liabilities to pay tax, claims and penalties. In practice they will only need to give 7 days notice of their intention to visit the business premises, including vehicles and private residences if the business is conducted there. Whilst there they may inspect the premises themselves, business assets on the premises and business documents on the premises that form part of the statutory records. 

Hand in hand with the new compliance visits is new legislation in the pipeline to formalise the accounting records that need to be maintained. Please be aware that the Revenue will expect you to keep all the following for at least 6 years: 

Bank statements (for your business and you personally)

Credit card statements (for your business and you personally)

Purchase invoices and sales invoices

Petty cash records

All books and records whether computerised or manual.

Any other records necessary to support your accounts such as diaries, stock records, quotations, even emails and so on. Basically anything which will ultimately support the figures in your accounts. 

We recommend that all businesses make sure they are keeping sufficient records now. If you are unsure about what is appropriate to your business please contact us straight away. 

The implications of being unprepared for a compliance visit are a major cause for concern. Any tax loss discovered at or as a result of a compliance visit will result in penalties at a minimum of 35% of the tax lost. This is substantially more than would be expected under the current penalty regime. 

In summary you need to begin preparing for a potential compliance visit now. Firstly by ensuring that your record keeping is adequate and also by notifying us if you are chosen for review so we can brief you beforehand or ideally attend the visit with you. 

If you would like to discuss this further or for us to carry out an accounting records health check please contact Mark Friend or Andrew Grant.