Colleges could be burdened by tutor crackdown
Education establishments face prospect of providing Taxman with "an awful lot of information"
LETTERS sent by the Taxman as part of its campaign to target private tutors could burden educational establishments, a tax protection firm has claimed.
The HM Revenue & Customs’ letters have been sent to language schools, distance learning companies and other colleges. They call on the organisations to provide the Taxman with details of “gross payments made for teaching, lecturing, tutoring, examining and invigilating, from which no PAYE tax has been deducted, for the years ended 5 April 2009, 2010 and 2011.”
The colleges are asked to provide the name of the person, their address, the total amount paid and whether or not it included VAT and a description of the services provided by the individual. This will only apply to individuals who had been paid more than £1,000 in a tax year.
Guy Smith, senior tax consultant at Abbey Tax, said that this could potentially burden larger groups. “One of the companies that received letters has 150 colleges, so it is an awful lot of information they have to provide,” he said. “For the distance learning colleges, it will take some effort.”
There is also a concern that HMRC will use the information it gathers to scrutinise the employment status of the individuals, which will affect the companies themselves, added Smith.