HMRC urges immediate action over VAT errors

Date: 24th August 2010

Small businesses around the UK could be advised to heed recent advice regarding VAT returns.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has issued a new guide explaining what taxpayers should do in the event of submitting a return which contains a number of errors.

The guide, recently highlighted by online news source Shout99, urges business owners and other individuals to correct their own mistakes as a matter of urgency in order to avoid paying penalty charges.

HMRC said a large number of the mistakes that are reported to its Error Correction Team could easily have been rectified by those submitting the returns.

However, the organisation has stated that minor mistakes are unlikely to result in businesses being handed a penalty charge.

"The majority of small errors will not be careless or deliberate, so no penalty will be due. People do make mistakes and HMRC does not expect perfection," the department said.

Posted by Thomas Fletcher