Don’t ignore communications from the tax man

From the end of June last year, HMRC has resumed its pro-active approach to tax collection and enforcement.

Since then, it has collected more than £5.8bn and prevented a further £11.2bn in revenue being lost through its investigations activity, according to newly published research by Pinsent Masons.

This represents a total collected of £30.8bn, an increase from £28bn collected in 2020.

The research found “HMRC has been taking a “tougher stance” on tax errors and avoidance in the past year and ramping up compliance activity as it looks to make up for the shortfall.”

HMRC also has recently acquired greater powers to give joint and several liability notices to directors, shadow directors and certain other individuals connected to a company if it becomes insolvent. This means that people who do not appear on the director register can also be pursued.

HMRC has always been known to favour...

It will be interesting to see the analysis of consumer spending once the Christmas and peak holiday buying season is over.

Data throughout the year has indicated that people are less willing to splash out on so-called “big ticket” items, whether online or on the High Street.

Whether this is being caused by a change in attitudes to consumption or to increasing worries about job security and income is not yet clear. Consumption assumes spending on basic needs and then discretionary spending on goods and services including leisure.

Influences on consumer spending

Clearly, consumers’ confidence in their current and future financial situations are a key driver in the willingness to spend at least in the short term.

It is influenced in part by the changing costs of expenditure on such things as housing, fuel, food, clothing and travel costs, which are monitored annually by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), where the weighted average of prices of a basket of consumer...