Inland Revenue Denies Amnesty Reports

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

11 February 2005

The UK's Inland Revenue has dismissed reports in the UK media that it is considering offering partial tax amnesties to businesses in the 'informal economy' looking to legitimise their activities.

In a report published at the weekend, the Mail on Sunday announced that:

"Tax-dodging small business owners and sole traders are being offered a partial amnesty for their past misdeeds under a Treasury pilot scheme. In return for coming clean about previous earnings and making a 'compromise' settlement of what they owe, they will be able to come in from the cold."

The report went on to suggest that if the pilot scheme was successful, it could be extended nationwide.

However, speaking to AccountingWeb's TaxZone news service on Monday, a Treasury spokesman explained that:

"The Chancellor announced in the Pre-Budget Report that the government would look at the recommendations of the [Small Business Council] report on the informal economy and that process is underway. A number of pilot proposals for working with non-government bodies to help people get out of the informal economy are already under development, but none of them contemplates an amnesty."

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