How and why can HMRC access highly personal data from people trading on the ONLY FANS and other digital platforms

How and why can HMRC access highly personal data from people trading on the ONLY FANS and other digital platforms!

Set out below is the technical, statutory basis behind why HMRC has the power to obtain, direct from the payers, details of people’s earnings from various digital platforms and other sources before they know they are going to be investigated.ie their power to obtain data!

Schedule 23 Finance Act 2011 expanded upon HMRC’s information powers with the aim of gathering information on particular groups of people for use in risk analysis.

Schedule 23 enables HMRC to issue a ‘data-holder notice’ to a ‘relevant data-holder’ requiring the relevant data-holder to provide ‘relevant data’ to HMRC.

Data holders can relate to most commonly, credit card companies known as merchant acquirers; providers of electronic stored-value payment services; money service businesses, dealing in securities; insurance activities (e.g., Petplan pet insurance) and anyone earning money from digital platforms like UBER, ONLY FANS, and Airbnb. The list is diverse, but all requests by HMRC have one thing in common gaining hard irrefutable information on third parties.