HMRC publishes festive tax defaulters list
20th December 2019
Posted in Business Tax by Andrew Marr
The issue
I was interested to stumble upon the following list which has recently been updated on 16 December 2019:
In it HMRC list the names and addresses of tax defaulters and also (interestingly) give details of the tax that was at stake along with associated penalties. Although penalties are lower than the 100% maximum they are generally pretty hefty and perhaps indicative of a more aggressive HMRC when irregularities are discovered.
On a side note, I assume that HMRC must have some kind of special GDPR dispensation for this kind of thing!
Forbes Dawson comment
The fact that this list is still going strong should be a reminder to tax evaders that the sword of Damocles is hanging over them. Things will generally go much more smoothly (and they will probably avoid the list) if such individuals wipe the slate clean by making an unprompted disclosure. We are open for business for those who want to make unprompted disclosures and prompted disclosures (perhaps after an unwelcome Christmas letter from HMRC).
