HMRC rolls out electricians’ tax amnesty
HMRC has officially launched the Electricians' Tax Safe Plan (ETSP) offering electricians who have been less than honest with their tax returns to put things right at a lower cost.
As previously announced in December, electricians must now register for the scheme by 15 May and will need to pay any back taxes plus interest and penalties by 14 August.
The penalty rate will depend on individual circumstances.
Where individuals have underpaid tax due to mistakes with their tax returns or forgetting to tell HMRC that they have started up in business, tax penalties will be limited to between zero and 10% of the tax due.
Where individuals have deliberately understated their income or not told HMRC that they have started trading, tax penalties will be limited to 20%.
PKF partner John Cassidy said HMRC would have done sufficient ‘homework’ on electricians to know who is likely to have underpaid tax.
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The building regs database should be interesting HMRC
As an electrician has to report a lot of work he/she does to building regs, crossing checking this with an electricians account should produce interesting results. For a first steps just find all electricians that have much lower profit per registered job then normal.
Likewise given that all consumer units (or at least 99%) are installed by electricians, could HMRC force every surlier to give details of all their customers and how many consumer units they brought? (Most point of sale systems include the customer number of everyone that gets a “trade discount”)
Also what would be the result of sending out a random mail shot to a sample of house holders offering to enter them into a price draw if they provided details of any work they have had done to their home in the last year?
The data is out their if the HMRC true wished to start using it……