Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether HMRC has issued guidance that the (a) Customer Compliance Group and (b) Risk and Intelligence Service (Compliance, Operational Insight and Risking) Group should only investigate cases of alleged tax evasion where the estimated loss to the public purse has been more than £35,000 for five years or more.

HMRC Customer Compliance Group’s guidance specifically states that there is no de-minimis limit for suspected fraud referrals and does not contain any instructions that would limit investigation in relation to timespan of the tax at risk.

HMRC’s Risk and Intelligence Service deliver a wide range of cases, including where there is suspected evasion behaviour. CCG use a variety of indicators to identify the highest risk cases to address different compliance risks, but do not use an estimated loss of £35,000 for five years or more as a standard selection criteria.