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"Lack of safeguards in
debt legislation is a concern." says ACCA
IN the 2014 Budget, the UK's HM Revenue
and Customs (HMRC) announced that would be given new powers whereby they would
be able to recover Tax and Tax Credit debts directly from businesses and
individuals. In effect the Direct Recovery of Debt (DRD) powers would allow HMRC
to take money directly from bank accounts and since then it has become an
understandable hot topic of debate. Although there were some safeguards
proposed, these did not go far enough in the eyes of many. Add to that the fact
that the HMRC could not guarantee that the increased powers would not be used in
error is extremely concerning for many groups, with strong views of concern
being expressed from business and charities since it was announced. But the
publication of the primary legislation needed to bring in to
law the direct recovery of debts
omits the safeguards that would dictate under which circumstances these new
powers may be used. The omission of this is still a major concern to groups like
the
ACCA (the Association of Chartered
Certified Accountants). Chas Roy-Chowdhury, ACCA head of Taxation,
said:- "We have seen HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) make some
concessions following ACCA's and other responses to their consultation over the
proposals, but we are concerned that there no detail yet on the safeguards and
detail of precisely how this new, wide ranging power, will be used. HMRC have
been clear that they only want the power to use against those that can pay, but
have refused to do. But there is nothing in the primary legislation as it
currently stands to restrict them to these instances. We understand that the use
of the power is to be set out in secondary legislation. ACCA's concern is that
secondary legislation is a lot easier to amend and while we have no reason to
think that the current management at HMRC will deviate from how they propose to
use the powers, future administrations may not feel so constrained."
The direct recovery of debts was first proposed by the Chancellor during his
2014 budget and was included in the draft finance bill clauses clauses following
the 2014 autumn statement. If this affects you, please contact us and let
us know your views and thoughts, via emailing:-
news24@southportreporter.com.
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