Save content
Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile.
AIA

HMRC gets hold of credit card records

by
5th Sep 2013
Save content
Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile.

HMRC will be able to see information on credit and debit card payments made by businesses under new powers to help it reduce fraud.

The Revenue says it's new powers could reduce fraud by more than £50m per year.

HMRC can access information from the UK’s merchant acquirers – the companies that process card payment transactions – to find out the number and value of transactions completed by a specific trader.

No personal data identifying the card owners or card numbers will be obtained, but this data will be used to ensure that traders have correctly accounted for all taxes due, HMRC said.

Exchequer secretary to the Treasury David Gauke, said: “Tax evasion and the hidden economy cost the taxpayer £9bn a year. While the majority of traders are honest, they may find themselves undercut by the minority who seek to lower prices by cheating the tax system.

“The government has given HMRC nearly £1bn to tackle fraud and evasion, and these new powers give HMRC an extra tool to ensure a level playing field between businesses, and also reducing opportunities for those who try and cheat the system.”

The legislation allows HMRC to obtain data on card payments to all UK businesses for the previous four years. The first requests for the data will be sent to merchant acquirers this week and from next year this will be an annual request. 

HMRC will analyse credit card data using its Connect computer system, which identifies possible fraud and tax evasion.

The announcement of the new data powers came as HMRC started the second part of a UK advertising campaign to raise awareness about tax evasion.

Tags:

Replies (6)

Please login or register to join the discussion.

avatar
By nogammonsinanundoubledgame
05th Sep 2013 14:06

I'm intrigued

If they don't have access to the card owner or card number, how do they hope to identify the trader?

With kind regards

Clint Westwood

Thanks (0)
Replying to sslcresult:
avatar
By mikefleming3028
05th Sep 2013 14:21

Through a glass darkly

This is how it will work, simples!!

Regulation 3

3 After regulation 11 insert –

“MERCHANT ACQUIRERS

11A(1) The relevant data for a data-holder of the type described in paragraph 13A of Schedule 23 are –

(a)in relation to each person who holds a merchant account with the merchant acquirer (a “trader”), information relating to payments made to a merchant account, including the currency the payments were made in;

(b)the reference number of the account into which the payments referred to in sub-paragraph (a) were made and, where necessary for identifying the account, the branch where the account is held;

(c)the customer ID number, being any unique reference number which has been allocated to a trader, for the purposes of identifying the trader, as part of the business arrangement between the merchant acquirer and the trader;

(d)the merchant ID number, being any unique reference number which has been allocated to a trader's merchant account, for the purposes of identifying this merchant account, as part of the business arrangement between the merchant acquirer and the trader;

(e)the name, address and telephone number of each trader and for each merchant account; and

(f)where available to the merchant acquirer at the time of receipt of a data-holder notice, the e-mail address, website address and VAT number of each trader and for each merchant account.

11A(2) In this regulation “VAT number” means “registration number” as defined in paragraph 1 of regulation 2 of the Value Added Tax Regulations 1995.”.

Thanks (0)
avatar
By mikefleming3028
05th Sep 2013 14:08

1984, Newspeak and The Ministry of Truth

The origional impact assessment on this new powers published in 11/12 made no mention of any benefit to the Exchequer and now  HMRC state that they could reduce fraud by up to £50m per year, has something changed since then to support this forecast or was this in their collective mind  at the time it was first drafted?

As for restricting access to personal information of the card holder this could easily be changed by a very small amendment to the Legislation one hopes that Members of the House of Commons are aware of the full implications of this most interesting change in the Law. 

One wonders what George Orwell would have had to say about this?

Thanks (0)
avatar
By User deleted
05th Sep 2013 14:40

How does this work ....

With off shore providers - PayPal, Authorize.Net, 2g2s.com (EU)

 

Thanks (0)
Woolpit Gus
By nutwood
05th Sep 2013 16:12

If I'm reading this correctly

should the first line of the of the article read

HMRC will be able to see information on credit and debit card payments received by businesses under new powers to help it reduce fraud.

Thanks (0)
avatar
By User deleted
05th Sep 2013 22:25

Correct, Nutwood

Either that or HMRC will be able to see information on credit and debit card payments paid to businesses under new powers to help it reduce fraud (as suggested later in the article)

We seem to have been correcting a lot of AW articles recently :)

Thanks (0)