As from previous years, the penalty for missing the Self Assessment deadline is £100. Now though, there will be a £10 a day fine from May lasting for 90 days, £300 on 1 August or 5 percent of tax due (whichever is more costly) and the same penalty on 1 February 2013.

For the first time, fines are no longer capped to prevent penalties being due by those with no tax liability. This means that someone with no tax liability or due a rebate could face a fine of £1,600.

This move comes after last year’s figures showed that around 1.1 million tax payers had still not submitted their Returns six months after the deadline.

Previous campaigns have targeted person coaches, doctors and plumbers.

The campaigns aim to motivate people to own up about any unpaid tax and in doing so avoid harsh penalties.

Around £500 million in tax has been recovered from previous campaigns.

Tax expert Gary Ashford said:” These campaigns may have a feel of déjà vu to many of us – but to those in the Revenue’s sights they are new and serious. They are a real statement of intent from the government, and show they are determined to reach their target of bringing in an extra £7bn over the parliament through initiatives to tackle tax avoidance, evasion and fraud.”

The loss of revenue has been caused by cutting criminal negligence claims.

The findings have come after they appeared on the Whole of Government Accounts (WGA).

Officials’ evidence has suggested that the Treasury’s understanding of some aspects was “poor.”

A cross party group of MPs report said: “The Treasury showed surprise at the estimated £10.9 billion in outstanding tax and it had no knowledge of recent trends in clinical negligence claims or whether plans were in place to reduce the estimated £15.7bn cost to taxpayers meeting these claims.”

The report added: “We were surprised to find that [the] Treasury did not have a grip on trends in some key areas of risk or plans for managing them.

A statement on HMRC’s website said: “To make sure our customers are not disadvantaged if they cannot get through to HMRC’s call centres on 31 January, we will not impose any late filing penalties for people who file their Self Assessment returns on 1 and 2 February.”

HMRC’s Stephen Banyard added: ““We’ve always been very clear that we want the returns – not the penalties. For that reason, we don’t want anyone who can’t get through for help and advice on 31 January to be disadvantaged in any way”

Hodge told Ricky that the conclusion is “The evidence of the Department’s senior officials fails to give us any confidence in the way large settlements are reached.”

She also pointed out that a lively debate has begun over how HMRC handles its business and expressed her thanks for Ricky’s contribution. Ricky’s concerns have now been circulated by her to all members of the Committee so that they can consider his evidence.

An HMRC statement said it will “examine whether the current approach is the best way of achieving the policy objectives, and identify what changes are needed to ensure that the objectives are achieved.”

However, the same amounts of visits are planned as before the review was announced.

Abbey Tax policy advisor Guy Smith said: “HMRC seems to be playing a game of smoke and mirrors. On one hand it is saying it is listening and limiting the number of BRCs to ease the burden on SMEs, but on the other hand its national BRC unit in Coleraine is carrying on as normal.”

The Public Accounts Committee aired “serious concerns” about how some large settlements had been concluded.

Around £25 billion of tax from large companies is outstanding, the MPs believe. They also want HMRC to be more transparent with its dealings with big business.

This follows a high profile case when Goldman Sachs underpaid tax on bonus payments of £20 million. It has also been suggested that Vodafone paid nearly £5 billion less than it should have done.

The chair of the Committee Margaret Hodge MP said: “Big companies have very expensive advisors, consultants and lawyers. HMRC, on their own admittance, has very few people who have deep knowledge of tax affairs.

She added: It’s imperative everyone is treated equally in front of the law.”

However, HMRC have hit back, saying the MPs misunderstood the facts.

A spokesman said: “The report is based on partial, inaccurate opinion and some misunderstanding of the facts.”

George Osborne and Vince Cable will push ahead with the plans to separate high street lenders from “casino” investment banking.

Cable, speaking of a “big structural reform” said: he government is going to launch this initiative on the banks, accepting in full the Vickers commission,” We’re going to proceed with the separation of the banks – the casinos and the retail, business lending parts of the banks … Moreover we’re going to get on with it. Both the primary and secondary legislation is going to be completed within this parliament. It’s got to be done. We can’t have a position where the big banks are too big to fail.”

Although the proposals do not go as far as a full scale split between investment banks and high street banks, there will now be ring fencing, forcing banks to place high street banking in a separate legal subsidiary. The intention is that this will prevent any taxpayer bailout of banks from happening again.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that the consumer prices index fell to 4.8 percent in November, down from 5 percent in October.

The ONS said that the biggest contributor to the fall was down to food prices. Strong harvests eased the price of breads, cereals, potatoes and onions, whilst there were record falls in the prices of sugar, jam and confectionary products.

A fall in petrol prices of 1p a litre also contributed to the fall.

Inflation will continue to fall over coming months, predict the Bank of England, perhaps falling to around 1.5 percent by the middle of next year.

However, economists are warning that the still relatively high inflation would continue to squeeze low and middle earning households in the face of slow pay growth and worries over future employment.

Chief economist at Markit said: With consumer spending accounting for around two-thirds of all spending in the UK economy, this will act as a substantial dampener on economic growth, and the combination of weak consumer spending with public sector spending cuts and falling demand for UK exports means there is a strong chance of the UK dipping back into recession as we move into 2012.”