Two out of three large businesses are the subject of HMRC open enquiries into their tax affairs, according to figures released at the autumn HMRC stakeholder conference yesterday, attended by tax advisers and practitioners.
‘There are 2,100 businesses that fall under the “large business” category in the UK and the HMRC staff-to-“large business” ratio is almost 1 to 1,’ said Jennie Granger, director general enforcement & compliance at HMRC.
‘Currently, HMRC has open enquiries with two-thirds of these large businesses. So far they have raised about £31bn in additional revenue,’
HMRC has enquiries open for two-thirds of the largest corporations operating in the UK, highlighting the complexity of the international tax system in which these corporations operate and HMRC’s need to be actively scrutinising how these corporations negotiate their way through that system.
Granger added that HMRC aims to close such enquiries within 18 months of opening them.
