Payments, Repayments and Debts - Consultation on consistent tax collection practices

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17 January 2008

In the year to March 2007, HMRC collected over £423 billion and repaid £85 billion. The outstanding debt balance has average £20 billion, about 5% of receipts. In June 2007, HMRC published a consultation document entitled Payments, Repayments and Debt: The Developing Programme of Work which proposed measures that, taken together, would:

• make it easier for those who wish to pay on time to do so
  
  
• address the extra costs to taxpayers that arise from different regimes
  
  
• deal firmly with those who choose to delay payment, or not to pay at all.

The feedback from that consultation and from consultation meetings with taxpayers and representative bodies has allowed HMRC now to publish a further consultation document with further proposals and draft legislation.

HMRC is inviting comments on a range of issues, including:

• a single set of powers across all taxes for distraint (i.e. seizing goods in order to recover tax debts) and court proceedings
  
  
• splitting employer's payments between tax and NICs when only one figure is provided
  
  
• discretionary powers for HMRC to set-off payments for one tax against debts for another
  
  
• the facility to pay tax by credit card, with appropriate safeguards
  
  
• collecting small tax debts by adjusting employees' tax codes.

The deadline for comments is 6 March 2008. Instructions for sending comments are given in the consultation document.

...UK Payroll News - Latest

Further information:
Payments, Repayments and Debt: Responses to Consultation and Proposals

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