Pictured above: Paul Spencer, partner at Spencer Gardner Dickins which has offices on Cheetah Road in Coventry

Tradespeople across the West Midlands are being urged to take advantage of a tax amnesty announced by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) - and avoid being tapped up. 

Paul Spencer, partner at Coventry-based accountancy firm Spencer Gardner Dickins, said plumbers, gas fitters and heating engineers will all be looking over their shoulders following the launch of the Plumbers' Tax Safe Plan (PTSP) and should be seeking specialist advice before it is too late. 

The plan gives tradespeople up until May 31 to confirm they intend to disclose any unpaid tax, and then do so by August 31 at the latest and qualify for a lower penalty rate.

After this period HMRC has revealed it will be carrying out targeted investigations on individuals it suspects have been underpaying.   

To help identify businesses it believes are under-declaring income HRMC has built a database using information obtained from Gas Safe and Corgi registers and compared it to advertising directories and Health and Safety prosecutions. 

Spencer said: "The PTSP is the first initiative to be launched by HMRC as part of a campaign focusing on such trades.

"There is likely to be a number of businesses in the region who have not paid all the tax they should have done, and now have two options available to them. 

"They could continue to keep their heads down and hope to go unnoticed, but would be better served to take this opportunity being handed to them.

"HMRC is working towards going knocking on doors later this year so tradespeople who think they may have underpaid are unlikely to get a better deal than is being offered.

"We have helped many businesses in the region with these disclosure options under previous amnesties and tradespeople in any doubt should be seeking professional advice as soon as possible because they only have three months to act on this."