HMRC has issued a new paper on the way in which it proposes to manage country-by-country reporting. Included is this statement:
Operational impact (£m) (HMRC or other)
There will be a modest cost to HMRC from receiving and processing the reports and also from responding to requests to exchange information from tax authorities in other jurisdictions estimated at £100,000 for 2017 to 2018 and £200,000 a year thereafter.
Let's assume that HMRC are marginal costing, i.e. they are just considering additional direct staff costs. What does £200,000 buy? Maybe three reasonably senior people? Perhaps a bit less after NIC and pension costs are accounted for? And there are no IT costs at all, so no tools are to be created to handle this data, I note.
Are they serious?
The biggest new risk assessment tool for a generation is being introduced and HMRC are effectively saying they are going to ignore it?
Why is that?
Do they not want to avoid tax abuse?
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I think you yourself said that the data was already being collected by companies and it would cost them nothing to supply it.
Let the private sector show us how big and grown up it can be about supplying the data such that it needs minimal checking!
This is HMRC cost
And it suggests they have little intention of using it
Checking is irrelevant: interpreting it is
That is the scandal on this occassion
“And it suggests they have little intention of using it”
…because what it will reveal will force HMRC into a position of having to develop a backbone and start taking on the MNCs!!
Very hard to say what they are doing. Perhaps they plan to simply look at it when they already think there is an issue.
Or perhaps they think that receiving this information will result in cost savings because they will be able to review it and no longer need to make certain enquiries.
Or perhaps they think that forcing companies to supply it will encourage them to clean up their act and that will save money on enquiries.