10 triggers for an HMRC tax investigation.

John_Pierpoint

For those of you with access to the Financial Times, here is an interesting article about the top 10 "tools" for HMRC to define if a citizen merits further investigation.

It includes postings on social network sites - I wonder if MSE forum counts;)

This is an interesting concept, used by insurance companies and also HMRC it seems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benford%27s_law

http://im.ft-static.com/content/images/95ef5c0e-5864-4334-9dcb-8523fd3d98a6.img

jamesd

Here's a correct link to the FT story, first of the search results.

plunt

you can open that article even without membership by viewing googles cached version

jamesd

Or by following the link. Many sites will display content after following a link from a search engine even if they would not when a URL is copied and pasted.

ILW

For some reason "travellers" are never inspected and seem to have piles of cash despite declaring very little (if any) income.

jamesd

Unless they show off lots of money at fancy weddings on a TV show...

dtaylor84

Other inspectors pose as couples out for a meal at a restaurant. The meal is later checked against the restaurant’s end-of-year books to see whether it has been properly accounted for.

I find that hard to believe -- it's not like the accounts are going to itemize every meal sold!

John_Pierpoint

Isn't this "the larger test":

ie Trying to unravel the accounts of a curry restaurant is a nightmare,. but extrapolating from the brewer.s invoice, gives some indication of the real turnover?