UK electricians set for tax clampdown

Date: 15th February 2012

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) will soon be writing to the UK's electricians urging them to take advantage of its tax disclosure initiative.

The department is to start sending letters to those working in the field reminding them of the benefits of coming forward over any unpaid taxes.

Under the terms of HMRC's Electricians Tax Safe Plan, taxpayers are being offered reduced penalties for owning up about unpaid taxes.

Penalties can be set at up to 100 per cent of the tax owed, but HMRC is offering reduced fines, with taxpayers able to benefit whether they made honest mistakes, were careless with their tax return or deliberately chose not to tell HMRC about something they should have paid tax on.

Marian Wilson, head of HMRC Campaigns, commented: "Our aim is to make it easy for electricians to contact us, make a full disclosure of income and face a reduced penalty.

"We are using a variety of intelligence sources to target electricians who have not declared their full income. This is the same method we used for the plumbers' campaign, and that intelligence has led to ten arrests and thousands of investigations, so we know it works."

Posted by Emily Smith