HMRC have announced that they will be imposing penalties of up to 100% of the amounts over claimed on businesses so make sure that your claims are correct.

The penalties depend on whether or not the over claim is the result of a deliberate error and whether or not the disclosure was prompted by HMRC. The penalty may be reduced where the taxpayer assists HMRC in correcting the error.

Many over claims may be the result of careless errors or a misinterpretation of the rules which have changed many times in the last 9 months so we hope that HMRC will apply the rules with a light touch and focus on those that have abused these schemes.