Mr. Niall Cody:

Not all of those would have multiple employments, but there definitely is under-reporting and we will continue engaging with businesses to support them doing that.

On the types of expenses involved, the big one is travel and subsistence. Part of the reason for the reporting is that it is clear to us from PAYE audit activity in recent years that non-taxable expenses were being paid incorrectly. This is really important and this is the way tax administration is going. We wanted to try to integrate tax reporting into the business activity so that it is right at the time it happens rather than looking at something a year later. This is an important part of that process. As can be imagined, next year we will be looking at some activity where it is clear that not enough wages are being returned and not enough non-taxable expenses are being returned and it will identify areas of risk. It will allow us to focus areas of concern rather than checking those with no problem. In a way, this is happening now.

We have started work on consideration of what a VAT real-time reporting system will be, which is really interesting and will represent huge change in how tax is administered. With the PAYE modernisation system, people had to fill out all sorts of annual returns after the event. In the run up to PAYE modernisation, I remember many business interests complaining about the burden. If we now announced we were going to go back to the pre-2019 system, people would look at us.