23/09/2010

£1.5bn In Tax 'Could Be Written Off'

Just weeks after it emerged that around six million people had been wrongly taxed since 2008, it has been reported that up to £1.5bn of other unpaid tax could be written off.

Due to cases being over two years old and open to legal challenge from taxpayers, the majority of the bill would not be pursued, HM Revenue and Customs staff have said.

Around 7.5 million cases of tax underpayment or overpayment is involved. Overpayment will be reimbursed and is estimated at £3bn dating back to 2007-8. No decision has been reached regarding underpayment.

The latest cases to emerge, are not on the HMRC's new computer system and will have to be dealt with on a manual basis.

HMRC staff have said that only those cases that verge on fraud will be pursued.

Cases will still be processed, were money is owed by the Exchequer to taxpayers.

A spokesman added: "We are going to be looking at at how best to deal with these. We are going to look at the specifics of each case and apply a normal criteria in due course.”

(BMcN)

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