HMRC Accelerated Payment Notices Given Go-ahead by High Court

A High Court has ruled in favour of HMRC’s controversial Accelerated Payment Notice (APN) initiative and direct recover of debts powers.

Despite a challenge from over 150 investors in film partnership schemes promoted by investment company Ingenious, a judge ruled in favour of HMRC and its new powers as announced in the July Budget.

The Ingenious investors who are being pursued by HMRC for unpaid tax sought to challenge HMRC’s “unreasonable” powers as the High Court heard that they “breached natural justice” and were “an abuse of their rights”.

The judge’s decision in favour of HMRC now means that it will go ahead with plans to send out 64,000 Accelerated Payment Notices (APNs) to those it suspects of tax avoidance and evasion by the end of 2016. HMRC estimates that it will recover £5.5bn in unpaid tax as a result of issuing APNs.

Accelerated Payment Notices require individuals to pay the amount HMRC believes is owed in unpaid tax within 90 days. There is no appeal process, which has been one of the major criticisms of the initiative. However, should an individual wish to dispute the amount HMRC has demanded through the APN, then this can be done at a Tax Tribunal. Should an individual be successful in their challenge at Tribunal, then HMRC will have to repay some of the money taken directly from their bank accounts three months following the APN having been issued.

Those who will fall under the scrutiny of HMRC are those who have invested in tax credit schemes, such as those promoted by Ingenious, private property landlords and those who trade on websites such as eBay and Gumtree and take payment via methods including PayPal.

For many, the time to act is now, before HMRC has issued an APN. To make use of the favourable voluntary disclosure facilities made available by HMRC until the end of 2015, you should discuss your circumstances in complete confidence with one of our trusted and specialist tax investigation and disclosure professionals.

Call us on 0113 387 5670 or fill out an Enquiry Form and we’ll contact you straight away.