Times Investigation: The tax enforcers chasing penniless families
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 22 December 2020
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
An investigation by the Times has found that HMRC, the UK’s authority responsible for the collection of taxes used private debt collection companies and letters accusing people left penniless by the pandemic of deliberately avoiding their tax bills.
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Guests:
Paul Morgan-Bentley, Head of Investigations at the Times.
Richard Hull, a self-employed carpenter.
Kirsty Howe, Director of The Firm.
Host: Manveen Rana.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is a passenger announcement. You can now book your train on Uber and get 10% back in credits to spend on Uber eats. |
| 0:11.0 | So you can order your own fries instead of eating everyone else's. |
| 0:15.0 | Trains, now on Uber. T's and C's apply. Check the Uber app. When the first lockdown started, life and so many livelihoods came to a juttering halt. |
| 0:27.0 | The government set up a furlough scheme to keep |
| 0:36.6 | those who couldn't work afloat, but it didn't rescue everyone. |
| 0:41.7 | One of the three million unemployed fallen through the cracks because they decided |
| 0:45.7 | they couldn't differentiate between limited companies where it was small people like me just paying |
| 0:49.8 | ourselves dividends and other bigger corporations. |
| 0:53.0 | Out of work, with no money coming in, these small businesses couldn't keep up with their tax bills. |
| 0:59.0 | But that didn't stop H.M.R.C. Her Majesty's revenue and customs chasing them with threatening letters and private |
| 1:07.0 | debt collectors. The H.M.R.C letters when it got to that latter stage and they are threatening |
| 1:12.3 | repossessions are really |
| 1:13.4 | directly aggressive we can take things you own and sell them and charge you fees for |
| 1:17.6 | doing so. Why are the government using such aggressive tactics on some of the people who've been hit hardest |
| 1:25.2 | by the financial impact of COVID? |
| 1:28.0 | You're listening to stories of our times from The Times and the Sunday Times. |
| 1:32.3 | I'm Manveen Rana. Today a Times investigation, the tax |
| 1:38.0 | enforces chasing penniless families. In March, as lockdown kicked in and the economy began to shut down, people who didn't qualify for government support, |
| 2:00.0 | suddenly found their earnings dried up, and they couldn't afford to pay their bills. |
| 2:05.4 | Rent, utilities and their taxes. |
| 2:09.6 | But surely, H.M.R.C. |
| 2:12.0 | Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, the Government's tax collecting department, |
... |
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