Taxpayers who fail to pay their outstanding taxes could face direct recovery action on their bank accounts under enforcement measures being pursued by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). According to the tax authority, changes are being enforced for people who have the means of paying their taxes but deliberately avoid doing so.
The move stemmed from a broader strategy to recover billions of unpaid taxes and improve the overall compliance within the UK tax system. Although the prospect of HMRC accessing bank accounts may alarm some taxpayers, officials say that this is only limited to tightly controlled cases and safeguards would be in place to protect vulnerable taxpayers.
