3. The lifestyle questionnaire is from hell

As you leave the interview you may be handed a questionnaire asking for details about your day-to-day lifestyle and expenditure.

The tone will be very casual, but be warned, in the absence of any evidence these pieces of paper will become the basis of a powerful tool for calculating your annual expenditure.

Later in the investigation HMRC will say: “We’ve looked at the questionnaire, we calculate it costs you X to have your lifestyle, you earn Y therefore we think you are not declaring Z and even though we have no evidence we are going to tax you on Z.”

What you need to know:

HMRC will put pressure on you to complete the questionnaire.

You are under no obligation to fill it out.

This questionnaire is entirely for the benefit of HMRC