HMRC

A businessman who defrauded HM Revenue & Customs out of more than £270,000 of VAT repayments and then forged documents to cover his tracks has been spared jail.

https://www.expressandstar.com/news/local-hubs/shropshire/bridgnorth/2023/07/27/bridgnorth-man-avoids-jail-after-270000-vat-fraud/

Two fraudsters who led a Polish beer smuggling scam have been jailed for a total of seven years.

Radoslaw Dobron, 36, and Ilona Leszczynska, 37, smuggled 122 lorry loads of beer that they had not paid UK tax on through a north London-based alcohol wholesaler.

A new report from HMRC has revealed £110 million of fraud and error in R&D tax relief claimed by SMEs in the construction sector in 2020-21.

The new figures have been released ahead of the introduction of tighter rules which come into force from August this year.

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/