HMRC seeks access to year's worth of personal bank statements over unpaid taxes

HMRC wants power to trawl through a year of your bank statement to retrieve taxes owed.

17:29 09 July 2014

HMRC has demanded new powers that will allow taxmen to access taxpayers’ bank statements to retrieve taxes owed, according to reports.

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs wants to be able to access monthly copies of bank, ISA, and even joint account statements.

If approved, this would mean giving the agency access to sensitive financial details including the size of families’ monthly mortgage payments, how much they spend in restaurants, and the amount saved into a tax-free nest eggs. HMRC plans to take money directly from bank accounts to settle unpaid tax bills.

Liberal Democrat John Thurso criticised the move saying: ‘We are talking here about the ability for one organisation of state... to have the unique right to go against the Magna Carta and all the other things we have established and to go in and seize – without judicial process or review – a bank account.

'I just want to know if it is justified, because my sense is that Parliament is going to reject it.’

HMRC chief executive Lin Homer said that the move is not against existing law. 'I don't think this is against Magna Carta. I don't think it is substantially different from the PAYE arrangement.

'This is not disputed tax, this is tax that is due, that people who are not subject to PAYE are choosing simply not to pay and they are creating an environment within which the normally very low collection cost of tax is made substantially higher by their action, in a way which in the vast majority of cases is wilful.

'I believe that for the taxpayer as a whole, it is right that we have sufficient powers to stop these limited numbers of people avoiding paying tax.'