HMRC enquiries

As an employer are you ready for an HMRC employer compliance review? Any employer can be selected at random. With the Government’s target to increase tax revenue, the risk that you as an employer may be selected for an HMRC review is increasing, especially as HMRC have started to undertake many of these reviews by telephone rather than attending business premises, representing minimal effort for HMRC but this can still be an extremely time consuming process for the employer.

The actual enquiry process can be daunting with targeted questioning by HMRC officers and the potential imposition of penalties of up to 100% of any tax found to be underpaid.  PEM will work with you to minimise both the time and worry involved in handling such a review.

An employer compliance review will cover many areas including (but not limited to):

• Expenses – ensuring that expenses are correctly claimed
• Benefits – ensuring that benefits are correctly reported
• Staff entertaining
• Directors’ Loan Accounts
• Payroll matters including National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage
• Employment status of contractors
• Termination payments
• Salary sacrifice
• International aspects

Preparation is key to a successful PAYE compliance review and PEM will help you through the entire process from dealing with the first HMRC communication to the closure of the enquiry.  Following the initial meeting (or phone call) with HMRC we will assist with follow-up correspondence to ensure that information and explanations are provided as fully as possible. If tax is found to have been underpaid, PEM will work with you to minimise any penalties.

If you want to gauge the robustness of your systems and identify risk areas earlier, PEM would be happy to undertake a mock HMRC review with you.