This email was sent to Money Box subscribers on 8 June 2007

Dear listener,

In a rare interview a director general of HM Revenue & Customs explains why he is clamping down on people with money in foreign bank accounts. The Revenue has the details of 400,000 of them and estimates they owe £1.75bn in tax. But he reveals that so far just a few thousand have admitted they do. We also ask him what he is doing about the £300m excess tax he has taken from people with savings in this country, and the £500m excess tax deducted in one year from wages and pensions through Pay As You Earn. And why does the Revenue charge us 7.5% interest on tax we owe but pays just 3% on tax it owes us?

Pensioners won a victory in the House of Lords this week as peers voted by a majority of 55 to increase the compensation paid to people whose pension scheme was closed down before April 2005. But the Lords vote could still be reversed in the Commons. And could trustees do more to make sure the money that is available is paid more quickly?

A proposed new law will make it easier for creditors to recover a debt when you sell your home. Could this cause people already in financial difficulties more problems?

And we hear that a year after they were forced to cut their penalty charges in half, credit card providers are busy putting up charges with new fees, higher interest rates, and making it more expensive to take out cash.

And maybe, just maybe, there'll be time for an update on a new twist in the recovery of bank charges.

To find out more on all those stories listen to Money Box – live on Saturday at noon, repeated Sunday at 9pm and any time (after the broadcast) on the web www.bbc.co.uk/moneybox

Best wishes,

Paul Lewis

PS: Don't forget I do a live preview of one Money Box story every Saturday on BBC1 Breakfast between 8.45 and 9.

 


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