Investigation into overseas sellers failing to charge VAT on online sales
Published on:The NAO have investigated concerns that online sellers outside the EU are avoiding charging VAT.
The NAO have investigated concerns that online sellers outside the EU are avoiding charging VAT.
On 15 January 2018, Carillion declared insolvency and the Official Receiver, an employee of the Insolvency Service, started to liquidate its assets and contracts. This report focuses on the role of the UK government in preparing for and managing the liquidation of Carillion.
The Scottish Rate of Income Tax will be introduced from 6 April 2016. This report considers the progress HMRC has made so far.
The exact scale of fraud within government is unknown. The quality and completeness of fraud data is often variable.
The Comptroller and Auditor General, Amyas Morse, has qualified his audit opinion on the regularity of the 2015-16 accounts of the Department for Work and Pensions. This is owing to the unacceptably high level of fraud and error in benefit expenditure, other than State Pension where the level of fraud and error is lower.
This impacts case study shows that HM Revenue & Customs has implemented more than 80% of our 130 recommendations since 2010, leading to significant reduction in tax avoidance and improvements in accountability and governance regarding tax disputes.
It is one example of financial or non-financial benefits realised in 2014 as a result of our involvement, all of which are set out in our interactive PDF.
Amyas Morse, the Comptroller and Auditor General, has today issued a report on the 2014-15 accounts of HM Revenue & Customs.
This memorandum has been prepared to support the Committee of Public Accounts consideration of HMRC’s approach to replacing its contract for IT services with Capgemini, known as Aspire. We set out HMRC’s approach, its business cases and the risks it has to manage. It does not seek to evaluate HMRC’s approach or progress, and therefore does not draw conclusions.
June 2016
HMRC has met its targets to raise more tax revenue in the short-term; however, an estimated £16 billion is lost to tax fraud each year. HMRC needs to improve the way it uses data and analysis to understand the effect of its actions to tackle fraud.
By reducing the number of its offices and moving to a regional centre model HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) hopes to significantly reduce its running costs and modernise the way it works. HMRC’s original plan has proved unrealistic and is now reconsidering the scope and timing of the programme. Any changes will need to be carefully managed to avoid diminishing the long term value of the strategy.
The NAO is publishing a suite of short guides, one for each government department, to assist House of Commons Select Committees.
The government continues to lose large amounts of money through fraud and error overpayments and many vulnerable people get less support than they are entitled to.
It is important that the Government ensures its compliance programme reflects the changing risks within the labour market, and maintains its progress in ensuring all employers pay the minimum wage.
HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC’s) contract with Synnex-Concentrix UK Ltd was terminated in November 2016. The contract was designed to add capacity to HMRC’s programme of interventions to prevent or detect error and fraud in personal tax credits awards. HMRC estimated that the contract would save £1 billion over its three year life time and an estimated £193 million, excluding Concentrix’s costs, had been saved by the time of contract termination.
HMRC aimed to move more customers online thereby reducing staff costs but significant numbers of staff were let go before technical improvements were completed leading to a collapse in service quality in 2015. Services have since improved.
The Department for Work & Pensions should have increased its focus on Housing Benefit fraud and error sooner, and is now facing an escalating problem.
This Departmental Overview is one of 17 we have produced covering our work on each major government department. It summarises our work on the HM Revenue & Customs 2012-13
There are more than 1000 tax reliefs in the UK tax system. The NAO intends to carry out future work evaluating how they are developed and implemented.
Within the programme of improvement already started by HMRC, the NAO helped ensure that, in January 2013, HMRC committed to improving customer service.
This NAO impacts case study represents one example where there has been some beneficial change, whether financial or non-financial, resulting from our involvement.
The report details progress by HMRC in stabilising and operating the PAYE service and its progress towards the implementation of its new Real Time Information service. The report also covers HMRC’s performance in tackling VAT fraud, and in reducing error and fraud in personal tax credits.