Charities have been told to “be conscious” of a change in approach from HM Revenue & Customs, which will see more focus more on generating revenues.
In 2015, HMRC published its Single Departmental Plan, which lists as its top objective to “maximise revenues due and bear down on avoidance and evasion”.
Speaking at Civil Society Media’s Charity Finance Summit, Alison Hone, charity VAT partner at Saffrey Champness, pointed out the difference between this objective and the department’s previous approach.
Hone, who worked previously as an HMRC VAT officer, quoted the department’s 2014 digital strategy, which says: “Every customer in the UK will have their own personalised digital tax account, so we can help make it simpler, quicker and easier to pay the right tax at the right time”.
“This is quite different," she said. "When you look back that their approach used to be that they should get taxpayers to pay the right amount of tax. There's now a focus change towards maximising revenue.
“We as a sector need to be very conscious of that and make sure we are looking at our incomes and maximising them effectively.”
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