The Behavioural Insight Team was set up in order to incentivise people to change certain aspects of their behaviour. It’s suggestions have already been used successfully by some local authorities who ran a prize draw to encourage the payment of council tax by Direct Debit.

The Revenue are considering whether it is felt the idea is a good one, although a spokesperson said “Anything that encourages more people to file and pay on time would be a good thing”.  HMRC spend millions of pounds in dealing with taxpayers who do not file or pay on time and a prize draw may well help their efficiency in that respect.

It is reported that the draw could start as early as this year and would be relatively inexpensive to run compared to the huge amounts spent on additional staff to chase late payers.