Construction industry fears new tax warning letters

The construction industry entered into “lively discussion” with the taxman
over fears that the taxman would send out automatic warning letters to SME
employers late paying their tax.

HM Revenue & Customs new encompassing penalty regime applied to the
construction industry regime from April 2010. In
minutes
released by the taxman from a 17 March construction industry
operational forum, industry representatives were concerned that warning letters
to be issued by HMRC the first time an employer was late paying tax, would
either be sent to smaller employers in error, or not at all.

HMRC’s Helen Latham said that it would limit the letters to larger payers.
Although the letters were automated penalties would not be issued without manual
intervention, and receiving a letter would not mean there would be a penalty.

More embarrassing for the taxman was its inability to afford to produce
CIS-related stats for the forum members.

“[HMRC’s Ken Claydon] explained that due to financial pressures, HMRC
currently had no resources available for the production of CIS statistics,”
stated the minutes.

Further reading:

4,000
construction firms defer tax under new scheme

Construction
firms hit with £180m in tax fines