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Taxman to hold back on small business checks

In a move that will please busy painters and decorators up and down the country, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has backtracked on a plan to go over the books of 50,000 small businesses a year.

HMRC had said that they would make the additional checks following a consultation last year, and even added 90 new tax inspectors to its team for the task.

However, in a move, perhaps following the discovery that small businesses keep better financial records than originally expected, HMRC has now announced that there will only actually be 12,000 checks made on small companies by April next year, and 20,000 the financial year after that.

A spokesman for HMRC said of the change in plan: "We are actually holding back a bit. Having done the initial pilots, we are going to build up in a more measured way."

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