Credit card checks for businesses
New legislation came into effect in September 2013 that allows HMRC to compare the number and value of transactions completed by a specific business on credit and debit cards to declared sales figures. The new powers are expected to reduce fraud by over £50 million per year. The legislation lets HMRC access banking records to gather information on credit and debit card payments made to UK businesses. HMRC has recently confirmed that they have received the first tranche of data from the 8 major merchant acquirer businesses operating in the UK.
The new powers do not allow HMRC to access personal data identifying the card owners or card numbers. The data will be used to ensure that businesses have correctly accounted for all taxes due, for example by comparing credit and debit card sales to the figures quoted on a VAT return. HMRC will be using its risking system, Connect, to cross-reference and compare the data to help identify if any tax fraud or evasion has taken place. The Connect system, which draws together information from across HMRC and displays it in an easy to understand format on one screen, was designed by BAE Systems and has been in use since 2010.
HMRC is warning businesses that accept credit and debit cards to ensure that they are properly declaring all income.