HMRC to be questioned on large business tax compliance by MPs
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will examine HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC) work on large business tax compliance.
Meeting details
Despite accounting for less than 0.1% of UK businesses, around 40% of the total tax revenue collected by HMRC comes from large businesses. HMRC’s large business directorate is responsible for ensuring the approximately 2000 businesses that meet the criteria pay the correct tax.
HMRC has a range of powers it can use to tackle poor behaviour by large businesses, if required. These powers include a ‘special measures' regime, which enables HMRC to sanction businesses that are consistently non-compliant. MPs will likely use this session to explore why HMRC has yet to use this regime and seemingly makes limited use of the other powers it has available.
How HMRC can keep pace with changes to international tax laws, and the potential impact of the £1.6bn allocated to modernise HMRC’s aging IT infrastructure are also likely to be discussed.
The Committee could also examine the improvements made to HMRC’s work in this area through its ‘cooperative compliance’ approach and consider how the model could be used in other aspects of its work.