Your tax affairs under the microscope

As HMRC gives greater priority to tax investigations as a means of raising revenue, these are going to become a much more frequent feature of our lives.

It's been estimated that every business can expect to be investigated at least once in its lifetime. And the change over to self assessment means that more and more personal taxpayers could find themselves at risk to an investigation.

Although they generally will do so, HMRC are under no obligation to disclose the reason for the investigation. It can be instigated because of a need to clarify certain points in your tax return, or simply as part of a random sample.

Whatever the reason, there is no doubt that any investigation can be extremely stressful and penalties for any infringement of the tax laws can be severe. So please, if you are unfortunate enough to be the subject of an investigation, don't panic and seek professional help immediately.

For more information on what the Inspector looks for and how we can help ease the pain of investigation, please view Tax Investigations (How to cope when the taxman comes to call) in our on-line publication Saving Tax. Alternatively, please contact Bob Churchill, Head of Taxation, on 01622 213745 (email bob.churchill@dsh.co.uk.)