HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) have announced an initiative to crack down on VAT rule breakers. The new campaign will focus on individuals and businesses who are trading above the VAT threshold but who have not yet registered for VAT.

The initiative is being discussed with interested parties to ensure HMRC has as much information from them as possible before launching the campaign later in the summer.

Previous campaigns have targeted offshore investments, medical professionals and people working in the plumbing industry. For each HMRC has used new technology and legislation to gather and analyse data, from internal and external sources, to identify people who should come forward. This has provided thousands more investigations, now being worked through, including a number of criminal investigations.

The VAT threshold is currently £73,000 turnover on a rolling annual basis. In previous years it was: 2006/07 – £61,000; 2007/08 – £64,000; 2008/09 – £67,000; 2009/10 – £68,000; 2010/11 – £70,000.

HMRC want to encourage anyone who has unpaid tax to come forward and make a voluntary disclosure; they maintain it will always be less expensive if tax payers go to HMRC voluntarily rather than wait until they catch up with them.