HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has confirmed that, as part of a crackdown on cash-in-hand payments, it is monitoring the proportion of card payments processed by small businesses, including restaurants and retailers.
According to the Revenue, on average, approximately 30 per cent of sales made by small businesses are paid in cash. However, it says that many small firms are failing to declare all the payments they receive.
HMRC has indicated that where a business’s card payments exceed a certain threshold, it will then investigate further.
It is inevitable, however, that SMEs in some sectors and some locations, will have a higher proportion of card payments than businesses in other sectors and locations. This creates a risk that businesses that are wholly compliant with the Revenue’s requirements will be investigated, simply because card payments represent a high proportion of their sales.
Link: This is Money
