Tax Avoidance & Evasion
HMRC naming and shaming deliberate tax defaulters 15 May 2015
HMRC continue to publish their quarterly list of those who have deliberately defaulted on their tax responsibilities. An Umbrella Company employing temporary workers is still top of the bill with penalties in excess of £18 million.
Subject to certain stringent conditions, anyone who has deliberately defaulted on their tax responsibilities will have their details published by HMRC.
Offshore tax evaders to face tough new criminal sanctions 22 July 2015
Time is up for people who don’t pay their fair share of tax by hiding their money offshore, says Financial Secretary to the Treasury.
HMRC has published a package of civil and criminal options to tackle offshore tax evaders and the enablers of offshore tax evasion. The consultations include:
a new criminal offence for offshore evasion – so in the worst cases it’s no longer possible to plead ignorance in an attempt to avoid criminal prosecution a new criminal offence for corporates who fail to prevent tax evasion or the facilitation of tax evasion on their watch increasing the financial penalties faced by evaders – including, for the first time, linking a penalty to the value of the asset hidden offshore new civil penalties on those who facilitate evasion so they will face the same penalty as the tax evader publicly naming both evaders and those who enable evasion. “Time’s up for people who don’t pay their fair share of tax by hiding their money offshore. People who evade tax, facilitate or turn a blind eye to tax evasion will now face powerful criminal and civil sanctions under our tough new regime. We’ve already seen over 90 countries across the world sign up to automatically exchange information on taxpayers. This, together with our new sanctions, will mean there is nowhere left to hide for offshore tax evaders.” In the last few years there has been huge progress in tackling offshore tax evasion. HMRC has already collected over £2 billion from previously undisclosed offshore income through agreements with Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the Channel Islands. As announced in the March 2015 Budget , these offshore disclosure agreements will close early (31 December 2015) and be replaced by a tougher last chance facility ahead of the automatic exchange of tax information with over 90 countries, including tax havens, from 2017. Speaking at HMRC’s Stakeholder Conference in London, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, David Gauke, said:
Further consultation on strengthening sanctions for tax avoidance 29 July 2015
Following consultation in early 2015, a further consultation document has been published on measures for serial avoiders, serial promoters, and how to introduce specific penalties where the General Anti-Abuse Rule (GAAR) applies. This consultation builds on the responses to the earlier consultation ‘ Strengthening Sanctions for Tax Avoidance ’ published in January 2015. It details proposals on how each of the measures would work and asks for comments on those details. For serial avoiders, this detail includes how the regime should be structured and what the entry criteria should be; what extra reporting requirements should apply to serial avoiders; how a surcharge might work; restricting access to certain reliefs; and when it would be appropriate to name the most persistent serial avoiders.
CIPP Policy News Journal
25/04/2016, Page 447 of 453
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