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The Plumbers' Tax Safe Plan was announced last week, which prompted TaxationWeb to put the following questions to Brian Redford, Acting Director of HMRC's Business Customer Unit

Why has HMRC apparently focused on plumbers/the Home Improvement sector? Does HMRC have a list of businesses or other activities which it intends to move on to in due course - are there more such targeted Plans in the ...pipeline?

This is the first part of an ongoing programme focusing on trades people. We hold a lot of information and intelligence on this group so it’s a good place to start. And yes, we do expect more Plans to follow on from this, in the future.

HMRC has just moved on from the Tax Health Plan. Does HMRC view the results of that fairly targeted exercise as a success?

Yes, it was a great success: it brought in over £10 million but it cost HMRC a fraction of that £10 million to get those people to "come in from the cold" - and higher tax yields will be expected in coming years as well, now that those taxpayers' affairs are in order. Taken together, these Plans/Opportunities have brought in hundreds of millions of pounds over the last three years.

Do you have an estimate of the amount this Plan is expected to raise?

We haven’t put a figure on how we much we intend to raise. Of course we want people to pay what they owe as part of the opportunity but another key part of the campaign is making sure that those who come forward, and those we catch up with afterwards, continue to pay the right amount in the future.

There are as many as 200,000 plumbers in the UK. We are confident that the majority are doing little if anything wrong. That still leaves a significant number who, we believe, are not compliant because they are not paying any tax at all or are not declaring significant sums of income.

Compared to the Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility, this plan is on a quick timetable. It is clearly aimed at people who may not have accountants or tax agents. Do you think that this will give them enough time? 

The Plan is aimed at both represented and unrepresented taxpayers. Those who want to come forward have until end of May to notify us and then until end of August to disclose – that's nearly 6 months. We have used similar time lines on previous disclosure opportunities and they have proved resoundingly successful.

Remember, the first step – notification - is simple. They just need to ring 0845 600 4507 and give their name, address, date of birth and a contact number.

There is also a major advertising campaign backing the plan, with lots of coverage so far in national and local papers, national TV, local radio and online.

There have been criticisms that the new Plan is complicated in terms of the level of disclosure required – having looked through the guidance and bearing in mind the intended audience, that criticism may be fair. There is extensive guidance on the website and, whilst this is welcome, is the degree of self-service optimal in your opinion, or is it a consequence of the resources available in the current climate in which HMRC is having to operate – will subsequent Plans work on a similar basis, do you think?

We have to work within the law. We can’t just offer a simple single penalty for everyone, as we did for the Tax Health Plan and NDO because the law has changed but we have kept things as simple as we can.

Some customers will pay no penalty at all. If they do have to pay a penalty, there are two levels, 10% and 20% and we have produced guidance to help select the one that applies. The Plan aims to provide people with an opportunity to self-service but we do provide the PTSP Helpline on 0845 600 4507 if people need help.

This kind of model has worked really well in the past and we expect to use it again in the future.

Finally, we noticed an item in the "What's New" section of the HMRC website on 18 February - How to Tell HMRC about Undeclared Income. Several parties - such as the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group - have been campaigning for targeted help for people who actively want to get their tax affairs in order but are scared of taking the first step. Is this part of a wider initiative?

No. But HMRC wants to encourages anyone who wants to come forward and voluntarily disclose tax owed to do so - they are likely to benefit from broadly the same terms as the current Plan.