Over two million small businesses that keep poor trading records face investigation and fines of up to £3000 under a planned HM Revenue and Customs clamp down in 2011. The "Business Records Checks" campaign will target 40 per cent of all 4.9m small and medium sized businesses that HMRC said "suffered from poor record keeping and where unpaid tax was likely to be due." HMRC said it will use its existing powers to tackle 50,000 of the worst cases each year from the second half of 2011. Penalties would be imposed "for significant record keeping failures."

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