Let-off ... 1.9m files will be closedALMOST two million people are to have their tax debts written off - in a move costing ?500million.
Inspectors will close the files on 1.9million cases dating back up to SIX years because it is too difficult to retrieve the cash.
The reprieve does NOT help the 1.4million people hit with tax demands over the past couple of months because of a PAYE blunder by HM Revenue and Customs.
A senior Government insider said last night: "It has been deemed unworkable and unfair to try to claw back this ?500million. People are not going to willingly sit down and write HMRC a cheque.
"Also, the sheer cost of chasing the payments is just too high in a system already struggling to cope."
Taxmen are currently trawling through an astonishing 17.8MILLION cases of underpaid or overpaid tax from 2004 to 2008.
A shambolic administrative system means around ?3billion was not collected in that time.
HMRC chief Dame Lesley Strathie will tell the Commons Public Accounts Committee next week that the cases are being closed. The TaxPayers Alliance said: "We are disappointed that the disfunction of HMRC means that not everyone is paying their fair share."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tax inspectors to write off debts for 1.9 million people | The Sun |News|Sun City
Comment