In their latest attempt to recoup more money for the UK deficit, it is believed that HMRC will now put increased pressure on owners of buy-to-let properties and holiday homes.
According to reports, HMRC is using a new computer system to compare stamp duty data, the tax paid when you buy a home, against declarations of CGT.
HMRC are believed to suspect that the recent MP holiday home scandal has given regular citizens similar ideas, tax expert Mike Warburton said: “I suspect that coverage of MPs' expenses has alerted taxpayers to the opportunity of doing the same, but it has also fired up HMRC to scrutinise claims more carefully. The Treasury needs all the tax it can raise. The moral is, if you want to claim PPR relief, get the occupation set up properly and collect all the evidence you need to support your claim.”
A HMRC spokesman said: We are getting better, rather than 'tougher', in this area. Before Connect, our new computer system, it was much harder to identify where the taxpayer had not told us about a taxable gain on the disposal of a second property. Connect has enabled us to identify far more cases where this is potentially an issue. We have also become much better at identifying the relevant indicators of occupancy.”