How to survive tax investigations
BDO Stoy Hayward helps both companies and individuals survive the ordeal of tax investigations. Our specialist tax investigations team and forensic accounting department understand the process and will help you to navigate the hurdles calmly and confidently.

Inland Revenue tax investigations and PAYE investigations are on the increase and fall into two groups: those motivated by a suspicion that the Inland Revenue is not getting the tax it thinks it should, and random tax investigations instigated by their monitoring system.

Whichever applies to you, tax investigations can be time-consuming, intimidating and ultimately very costly. Whichever category you fit in, our tax investigations team can help.

Local Inland Revenue offices will carry out random checks on companies of all sizes and on individuals - they are legally obliged to randomly check a percentage of the nine million self-assessment claims each year. If this happens to you, we can help by taking over the liaison on your behalf, or by letting our tax investigations team support your in-house professionals.

The local Tax office will also launch tax investigations into companies or individuals where they suspect tax has been under-declared. If this is the case it pays to get early expert advice.

In cases of potential serious fraud or situations where large sums are involved, the proceedings will often be passed over to the Inland Revenue’s Serious Civil Investigations Office (SCI). If you are under investigation by the SCI, you should contact our tax investigations team for expert advice.