Tax credits and stoozing?

silverbirch_3

I think they mostly rely on honesty. I would imagine that in order for them to check your banking records they would have to get a court order which would require some evidence of fraudalent behaviour first. But in my case all my earnings for the year are declared including my commission from being an avon rep although i know most don't declare that as income.

Ted_Hutchinson

I'm not familiar with the Inland Revenue Fraud protocols for obtaining information from 3rd parties, but if anyone wants to discover how much authority the DWP has to require the provision of information from financial institutions they may find DWP CODE OF PRACTICE ON OBTAINING INFORMATION interesting.

irs101

HMRC can and do check the income information you provide against PAYE records. In fact we had someone on here a while back who was being investigated. She admitted that she had accidentally put down the wrong income amount, so it seems likely that this was picked up by IR (seemed too much of a coincidence to be a random enquiry).

But the point is that there is a difference between the provisional income you report in-year and the final income you report on your annual renewal form. Never, ever, ever underreport on the later, it's the provisional income that you have flexibility over.

There are some things that you have to give the correct information on at all times - number of children, childcare costs etc. For example, checks are made on the number of children you report before the award is put into payment (although this may now have been relaxed to a post-payment check). But the only income figure that is checked is the final figure reported for the year. A possible exception to this is if you say that you are employed, 30 hours but earning less than the national minimum wage.

On bank records, HMRC do get information on the amount of interest you earn, because they need to know for tax purposes. But I don't think they have an automatic right to see details of your bank statement. But once they have launched an enquiry (which can be done at random) they can ask to see any reasonable amount of information they need to be satisfied that your declared figures are correct. That's my understanding of it anyway.

irs

lush_walrus

surfcat wrote:

...and in the process screwing the workers. Remember that the 'taxman' is really a term used (mainly by vested interest financial journalists) to describe the treasury in a negative light. Screwing the 'taxman' really means screwing hard workers out of their income. If less people screw, then either more taxes can go to genuine good causes (schools, hospitals etc) or the tax burden can be reduced.

Sorry everyone who disagrees but I have to say, well done to surfcat. I totally agree"!!!

seese

Me too surfcat!

System

irs101 I'm not sure that would work unless it is the first year you have claimed tax credits and so they would not have previous income history.

I know that when someone declares a significant change in income, estimated or otherwise, the Tax Credit Office write out to them for a signed confirmation of the new figures. Especially when there has been no change in employment to explain to difference.