HMRC

General description of the measure

These measures are targeted at the most persistent and determined promoters of tax avoidance. The measures will:

introduce a new criminal offence to apply to promoters of tax avoidance who fail to comply with a Stop Notice under the Promoters of Tax Avoidance Schemes (POTAS) regime issued in respect of tax avoidance arrangements

provide HMRC with the power to apply to the court for a disqualification order against directors of companies involved in promoting tax avoidance, including other individuals who control or exercise influence over a company

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dealing-with-promoters-of-tax-avoidance/tougher-consequences-for-promoters-of-tax-avoidance

Thankyou for the feedback to my Important warning to tech companies using R&D Tax Credits in yesterday’s HotViews. The general view was that the scheme was too open to abuse and fraud. A reader said ‘claimants were told by unscrupulous agencies that only 2-3% of claims were ever checked by HMRC’. So, as one reader said, ‘for the most part it was a tax avoidance scheme with loose connections to R&D’. But readers blamed it on HMRC’s ‘incompetence’ where HMRC laid ’itself open to this type of blatant corruption’.

https://www.techmarketview.com/ukhotviews/archive/2023/07/18/hmrc-reports-major-error-and-fraud-involving-rd-tax-credits

The ringleaders of a criminal gang in Belfast have been jailed after their office was bugged as part of Northern Ireland’s biggest ever tax fraud case.

https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2023/06/14/news/27_sentenced_as_part_of_northern_ireland_s_largest_ever_tax_fraud_investigation-3349785/

Ex-Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has denied fraud over an allegation he failed to declare more than £400 million held in a trust in Singapore to the Government.

https://uk.style.yahoo.com/ex-formula-one-boss-bernie-095152228.html/

11 sham companies were part of a group that fraudulently claimed UK-taxpayer funds and transferred the money to Hong Kong.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/network-of-fake-companies-shut-down-following-bounce-back-loan-fraud

Two fugitives involved in one of Britain's biggest VAT frauds have been sentenced for their part in a £150m criminal racket.

Arif Patel, 55, and Mohamed Jaffar Ali, 59, both currently on the run from police in Dubai, were handed 20-year and 11-year jail terms respectively in their absence on Thursday following a 14-week trial.

HMRC has found “no evidence of fraud” in a case where 12,000 Chinese companies changed their addresses to a flat in Cardiff.

https://www.bordertelegraph.com/news/23531065.no-evidence-fraud-case-12-000-businesses-registered-flat-mps-told/

The former Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has been charged with fraud by false representation over an alleged failure to declare £400 million of overseas assets to the UK Government following an investigation by the HMRC into the billionaire. The charge relates to the period between July 13 2013 and October 5 2016.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/bernie-ecclestone-attends-hearing-southwark-083902463.html/

The mastermind of a fake designer clothing scam has been convicted of one of the UK’s largest ever carousel tax frauds.

https://www.itv.com/news/granada/2023-04-12/fraudsters-found-guilty-in-one-of-hmrcs-biggest-ever-cases

A former West Yorkshire town councillor has been jailed for trying to steal more than £430,000 through the Government’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme.

https://www.midlothianview.com/news/man-jailed-for-eat-out-to-help-out-fraud