HMRC - scope/timeline of investigations

[jupick_46]

Does anyone know how far back HMRC is able/likely to go if they investigate individual selling histories? Am sure I read somewhere last year that it couldn't go beyond six years but I can't remember the detail.

[4_bathrooms]

---

@jupick_46 wrote:

Does anyone know how far back HMRC is able/likely to go if they investigate individual selling histories? Am sure I read somewhere last year that it couldn't go beyond six years but I can't remember the detail.

---

Where deliberate tax evasion is suspected HMRC can go back 20 years. 

Is there any particular reason you're asking or were you just curious? I'm only asking because a load of scaremongering rubbish has been posted to social media about the online marketplace reporting thresholds.

[jupick_46]

Just curious as I've been looking at recent media re: the deadline coming up at the end of this month for ebay to submit 2024 data to HMRC (as reported last January). Like you I'm aware there may be some misreporting.

[4_bathrooms]

---

@jupick_46 wrote:

Just curious as I've been looking at recent media re: the deadline coming up at the end of this month for ebay to submit 2024 data to HMRC (as reported last January). Like you I'm aware there may be some misreporting.

---

The reporting thresholds are exactly that - reporting thresholds - they do not alter anyone's tax position.

The daft thing is I don't believe HMRC even wants all this data as they are effectively being told what they already know.

[eastern-lights]

https://www.richardnelsonllp.co.uk/guides/how-far-back-can-hmrc-investigate/

4 years for an innocent error, five years for a careless or negligent error, 20 years for suspected fraud. 

[papso22]

That article says careless or negligent is 6 years but I am not sure that is right.

[selective_distribution]

When I had a Tax investigation for my retail shop some years ago, they went back 4 years! Having to produce all your invoices and bank statements and personal costs (Electric/Gas, Mortgage payments etc) from 4 years previous, was an absolute nightmare! Some of the questions I was asked were bizarre......Do you own a Caravan?........What did you spend that year on Xmas presents? (I defy anyone to remember what they spent at Xmas 4 years earlier!)........In the end after almost a year of meetings and investigations, they decided that I owed them £100 because I had bought a Modem (remember them?), and was not using it for the business. All in all it cost me nearly £3,000 in accountants and other fees.....! Plus a year of sleepless nights.