CIS: HMRC get tough on lost records

No doubt fed up with sloppy record keeping by subcontractors and finding excessive demands on staff time, HMRC is now saying that it will no longer automatically provide subcontractors or their agents with their payment and deduction details unless there is a reasonable excuse to explain why the records to have gone missing.

Whilst HMRC partly blame IT, they say that the CIS computer system was never intended to supply long lists of payments in paper form to subcontractors and their agents, it seems that compliance is more of an issue. It thinks that continuing to help out taxpayers and provide this information, on demand, would simply condone the subcontractors’ failure to meet their obligations.

When will information be supplied?
HMRC says: “Requests for missing details from individual subcontractors or their agents will continue to be provided when they can demonstrate that they have been back to the contractor concerned to request a duplicate or missing payment and deduction statement but have failed to obtain one.

In cases where it is alleged that a contractor has refused to issue one or more original payment and deduction statements, HMRC will require the subcontractor or their agent to give details of the contractor so that further enquiries may be made.

Once we are satisfied that a subcontractor has tried to obtain details of the missing payment and deduction statement, we will supply the missing information if we possibly can and, of course, where the information is currently held on the HMRC CIS system.

We won’t, however, automatically be able to provide lists of all payments and deductions covering a full tax year.

We hope that our customers will understand that dealing with these requests is very time-consuming and resource-intensive for us. We do, therefore, need to look at how we can limit the number of requests without reducing our service to those who show that they have a genuine need for this information.”

Link: CIS What’s new?