Leading Tax Expert Questions HMRC Credit Card Payment Decision
2 mins
One of the UK’s leading tax experts today questioned HMRC’s decision to stop accepting credit cards as a means of paying personal tax accounts from January 2018. Resulting from a government crackdown on credit card fees, HMRC have stated that they will no longer accept personal credit card payments from 13th January next year as they are no longer allowed to pass on bank processing charges and cannot expect other taxpayers to absorb those costs.
Tax expert David Redfern, founder of DSR Tax Refunds, stated that while he understood the reasoning behind the move, he believes that it will create an additional burden on people who are already struggling at present. He stated that “I appreciate HMRC’s stance on the use of credit cards is intended to be fair to all, but at a time when many families are already struggling, I question the wisdom of making it harder to settle their tax bills”. He noted that this could lead to people taking out loans or other costly measures to ensure that they don’t fall foul of HMRC’s payment deadlines. While he accepted the need to deal with bank processing costs fairly, he questioned whether it might have been a better solution to delay the introduction of this move, especially in light of today’s interest rate hike.
Redfern continued by noting that while there were other ways to pay one’s personal tax bill, such as BACS or by direct debit, it wasn’t always easy to spread the cost as efficiently as it might be by using a credit card as payment and stated that the fees for processing credit card payments were the real problem, saying that “as long as these rip-off charges are permitted, people will be unfairly treated in this way; it’s just unfortunate that HMRC have chosen now to add to the very real financial burden families are facing at present”.
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DSR Tax Refunds are tax preparation experts, based in Nottingham, UK, who specialise in helping clients win tax refunds on a no-refund, no-fee basis. Their specialist team can help workers and subcontractors with all relevant paperwork to ensure their claim is handled in an accurate and efficient manner.