Deliberate tax defaulters list updated
HMRC has published an updated list of deliberate tax defaulters as at 8 December 2016. The list includes individuals, businesses and companies and lists the amounts on which penalties are due and the amount of penalties charged.
The details of a tax defaulter will be held on HMRC’s website for a maximum of twelve months from the date they are first published and are not stored within the national archives. One of the companies listed, a Chinese restaurant based in Londonderry had to pay penalties of over £500,000.
A deliberate defaulter is a person who incurs a relevant penalty for one of the following:
- An inaccuracy in a return or document for a tax period beginning on or after 1 April 2010.
- A failure to comply with certain obligations, such as the obligation to notify HMRC of a liability to tax.
- A VAT or excise wrongdoing that occurred on or after 1 April 2010.
The measure affects the following groups of taxpayers:
- Taxpayers (individuals, businesses and companies) who are penalised for deliberately understating tax due, or overstating claims or losses, of more than £25,000.
- Taxpayers who are penalised for deliberately failing to notify HMRC when required to do so, leading to a loss of tax of more than £25,000.
- Taxpayers who are penalised for deliberately committing certain VAT and excise wrongdoings, leading to a loss of tax of more than £25,000.
Taxpayers who make unprompted disclosures or a satisfactory fully prompted disclosure are not affected by these rules.