Brown targets late taxpayers

THE INLAND Revenue stands to collect a windfall of between £80m and £100m from people who fail to file their self-assessment tax returns by Thursday's deadline despite an ad campaign featuring nagging housekeeper Mrs Doyle from TV's Father Ted.

A big tax crackdown on small business is also on the way after the deadline for the return of more than nine million of the forms, as well as for the payment of tax due on income in the financial year ended 5 April - plus another payment on account for the current tax year.

Inland Revenue tax debt collectors, renamed 'revenue receivable managers', are standing by to turn over any business which fails to file and pay on time, the trigger being failure to respond to a single phone call. The debt collectors are under orders to boost their 'strike rate' by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown.

An automatic penalty of £100 is followed by punitive interest rates, beginning at 6.5% on 31 January and rising to 11.5% by 28 February. Last year, 850,000 self-assessment forms were overdue, netting the taxman £85m to set against lost revenue.

'Taxmen are lying in wait,' said Roy Maugham, partner in accountants Hacker Young. 'Their brief is to tighten up on late payers, and it has been made easier for debt collectors to catch up with them. Collectors are itching to make that call to the more vulnerable smaller firms.' Maugham added: 'If the taxman says you can afford to pay, you must do so.'

More than 2,000 extra revenue receivable managers have been hired, and are under orders to find against the taxpayer in 76% of all full inquiries. Previously, there was no target.

A Revenue spokesman said: 'If you send in your return after 31 January you are more likely to be investigated.' He added: 'Currently, about 2.8 million returns have yet to be received, although we expect about two million of these to come in on 31 January.'

The Revenue spent £5.5m on TV ads in which viewers were nagged to return their self-assessment forms in time by Pauline McLynn, in her character of Father Ted's manic housekeeper Mrs Doyle in the TV comedy series. The forms, introduced in 1996, are so complex that eight out of 10 MPs are unable to fill them in unaided, according to the Chartered Institute of Taxation. Almost any return is open to interpretation, and the Revenue holds the upper hand with small businesses that cannot match its legal and accountancy resources.