You can’t get blood from a stone, but the taxman is attempting to extract unpaid tax from doctors, dentists and other medical professionals.
An HM Revenue and Customs task force is poring over payment records from NHS trusts, private hospitals and medical insurance firms to find medical professionals cheating the tax system.
Much of the money is squirreled away in office bank accounts, according to the taxman, who also has account details from 300 offshore banks to compare with the medical payment records.
Any medical professional who coughs up unpaid tax before March 31, 2010, will have fines reduced to just 10% of the unpaid tax in an amnesty encouraging them to come forward.
All tax owed must then be paid plus interest and penalties by June 30, 2010.
Anyone who does not come forward, but who is later investigated and found to have avoided tax, may be fined up to 100% of their unpaid tax, with a minimum penalty of at least 30%.
“There is a problem with a significant enough minority for us to provide this opportunity and the support that goes with it,” said an HMRC spokesman.
“We are talking about well-paid people – higher rate taxpayers.”
The HMRC campaign, called the Tax Health Plan (THP), follows efforts to uncover taxable income that has been hidden by UK taxpayers in offshore bank accounts – and the taxman warned that other professions might soon be under investigation.
The THP is part of the recently announced government initiative to make tax avoidance at home or abroad unacceptable by clamping down on banks, financial advisors and accountants as well as taxpayers.
The recent amnesty for offshore bank account tax cheats resulted in 10,000 taxpayers declaring unpaid tax on income in offshore bank accounts.
Many taxpayers believe because the taxman has not caught them out for a year or so, then they have slipped under the radar, but tax evasion is a criminal offence without a time limit. In some high profile cases, inquiries have looked back in to taxpayers’ financial affairs for up to 20 years.
