Marcus Bishop Associates - Chartered Certified Accountants - The way forward for Businesses

The restaurant trade has beome the latest sector to be targetted by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) specialist task force to investigate their tax affairs. This is the start of a new initiative planned for the coming weeks and will go nationwide afterwards. HMRC have plans for a further nine sector focused task forces in 2011/12 plus more next year. This is part of their quest to raise £18 billion by 2014/15. To assist them £900 million has been set aside from last year's Spending Review. 

Mike Eland, HMRC's director general enforcement and compliance, said: "These task forces are a new approach which uses HMRC's resources to identify and tackle rule-breakers and evaders swiftly and effectively. The message is clear - if you deliberately seek to evade tax HMRC can and will track you down, and you'll face not only a heavy fine, but possibly a criminal prosecution as well." HMRC is coming to a sector near you!