Taxman looks to bite down on food outlets

Restaurants and takeaways make up one in five of the businesses and business owners “named and shamed” as tax defaulters as HMRC continues to target the industry.

Accountancy firm Moore Stephens said today that the taxman had been singling out food outlets as officials believe they are more likely than most to under-declare income.

The firm noted that HMRC has now been able to automate many of its checks on the restaurant industry by receiving data from payment terminals, such as card readers, and cross-referencing it against a restaurant’s or takeaway’s declared takings. However, some are trying to bypass these new checks, it added.

Moore Stephens cited one instance where a business had three card machines taking payments, but only one linked to the business’s bank account. Dominic Arnold, partner, said: “HMRC has made no bones of its desire to clampdown on non-compliance in the fast food industry.”