HMRC alcohol tax to cost jobs

A leading insolvency lawyer has warned that the new government legislation to end alcohol tax fraud Alcohol Wholesaler Registration Scheme (AWRS) could lead to thousands of job losses. Small businesses in the trade sector operate on small margins and any disruption to their ability to trade even for a short time could be disastrous. The main issue seems to be that the HMRC don't have the resources available to deal with all the issues that will arise from the implementation of AWRS. 11,000 posts have been axed from this government department since 2010. There are currently 70 staff who will need to deal with 14,000 applications in year one.