UK Taxpayers Overpay By £4 Billion

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

05 March 2002

A new survey commissioned by IFA Promotions has revealed that British taxpayers overpaid by around £4 billion this financial year.

The organisation, which promotes the use of independent financial advice, revealed, astonishingly, that this figure is down on the previous year, when £5.7 billion was believed to have been overpaid by taxpayers unaware of, or unable to take advantage of, all of the tax minimisation options open to them.

In the report, entitled 'War on Wasted Tax', IFA Promotions argued that the tax system in the United Kingdom is so complex that it works in the Inland Revenue's favour, and estimated that if taxpayers took more care when filling in their tax returns, or enlisted the help of a finance professional, they could save themselves an average of £95 per year.

The survey revealed that although many people in the UK feel that they need the assistance of a financial adviser, they can often not afford to consult one, and so leave their tax bill to chance rather than trying to see if they can make savings.

Common areas in which tax is wasted, according to IFA Promotions, include: failing to file before the January deadline for self-assessment (which earned the Government around £1.1 billion this year), not making provisions for the minimisation of inheritance tax, failing to claim the correct personal allowances, not making use of tax breaks for penalties and share option schemes, and not using CGT allowances efficiently.

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