At next Tuesday’s coffee morning (30 Jan) we are looking forward to being joined by Margaret Snowdon OBE.
Margaret recently appeared on the BBC Breakfast sofa to explain about pension scamming and how some people have been hit with huge tax bills after they have been scammed.
She said that HMRC must show more empathy towards people who were conned by professional advisers and focus its energies on catching the scammers.
As chair of the Pension Scams Industry Group, she said there were some parallels with the loan charge, a controversial tax policy which has seen people on modest incomes hit with life-changing tax bills after taking professional advice.
“The way HMRC treats the victims of these scams has been awful; the pattern of behaviour, which has also been seen with regards to the loan charge, is that HMRC blames the victims.
They seem to be taking no action against the scammers and criminals behind these schemes.
Other countries, such as the US are taking action against these scammers, but in the UK they don’t seem to face any repercussions.
In the US fraud victims are given tax relief. Here in the UK it’s estimated that scammers have a one in 3,000 chance of being caught.
HMRC are going after the low hanging fruit and missing the bigger picture. Fraud costs the UK economy around £137b a year, that’s a huge proportion of GDP. This fraud is causing a lot of pain for people. HMRC must start to treat the victims of fraud as victims. There are parallels with the loan charge; people were misled by experts and then punished for doing what the experts say
We have found that HMRC are not just taxing them but hounding them. They should devote this energy into going after the scammers instead. The people affected by these scams are suffering because they feel guilty about being fooled and sometimes they don’t even tell their families. That drives a wedge in relationships. There have been marriage breakdowns and people have lost their homes.
The experts they trusted weren’t as smart as they thought or they deliberately lied. Anybody anywhere could be the victim of clever people.
One of the drivers of these scams is a lack of deterrence. HMRC should display more empathy and sympathy and go after the scammers instead.
HMRC should live up to its charter and should also employ people who are knowledgeable about the massive increase in scammers and fraud.”
Last month, a report by the Investment Fraud All Parliamentary Group concluded that HMRC is levying tax charges against investment and pension fraud victims rather than the perpetrators of the crimes.
An HMRC spokesperson said:
“We are sympathetic to victims of fraud and we recognise that individuals may have lost money by entering these types of arrangements. We do not tax pension savings lost to fraud. However, we will tax amounts that individuals release, or attempt to release, from their pensions where this is not authorised in law.”
HMRC takes a supportive approach to dealing with taxpayers who have tax debts, including offering Time to Pay arrangements where appropriate”
Margaret recently met with HM Treasury to agree a plan of action to see how scammed members can be treated fairly on this.
Pensions Advice Taskforce
We will also getting an update on the Pensions Advice Taskforce.
The Pensions Advice Taskforce is an industry wide representative body whose ultimate purpose is to raise advice standards and enhance consumer protection in complex areas of pension advice. Its initial focus has been on Safeguarded and Defined Benefit Pension Transfers.
Members of the Steering Group are senior individuals who represent consumer bodies, financial advisers (both large and small), scheme administrators, pension providers, PI insurers, Pension Wise, TPAS, Money Advice Service (all now under the banner of the Money and Pensions Service), and compliance consultants all with direct experience of both individual and workplace pensions.
TO REGISTER PLEASE CLICK “ATTENDING” HERE
NON MEMBERS CAN ACCESS TICKETS TO THE EVENT VIA EVENTBRITE HERE
We hope you can join us!
