DO NOT miss next weeks
edition. Stunning shots of Southport's Air Show
taken on Saturday and on Sunday as well as full report.
PAC report
proves need for immediate review of tax credits system
ACCA
(the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) is
calling for an immediate review of the government's tax
credits regime in response to the Public Accounts
Committee's report Inland Revenue: Tax Credits and deleted
tax cases, published this week, which highlights the
hardship faced by families who have suffered under the
system.
The ACCA suggests that by modifying the tax credits
system so it is less reliant on historic data would
safeguard people receiving overpayments or underpayments. It
would also create a system less likely to suffer at the
hands of fraudsters.
Chas Roy-Chowdhury, ACCA Head of Taxation says:-
"The PAC report shows that the Revenue's so-called 'new tax
credits system', introduced in 2003, has not improved over 2
years as it uses outdated earnings figures to calculate
awards. This resulted in 1.8 million (33%) of claimants
being overpaid in 2003/04.
For it to work fairly and
effectively, the Revenue needs to ensure that it is
proactive and not rely so heavily on individuals to give the
information necessary to receive the correct tax credits.
As many of those eligible to claim are taxed under PAYE,
their payroll details are already within the Revenue's
system.
The Revenue should be made to co-ordinate its
systems so that information already held on thousands of
people is kept up-to-date. This would dramatically help
improve the overpayments situation, which is currently
causing distress among many families who are being chased to
repay monies to the Revenue.
The Revenue should also remember that the majority of people
who are likely to be the recipients of the payments will
probably never have had any previous contact with the tax
authorities and hence will have no experience in completing
Revenue forms or interacting with its staff.
The Revenue
should be aware of this and allocate trained resources
accordingly."
