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London's lawyers are among the latest groups to be targeted by HMRC in the ongoing crackdown of tax evaders.
New Revenue taskforces announced today are expected to recover around £19.5m in unpaid tax by investigations into the financial affairs of the capital’s barristers and other legal professionals, as well as a variety of tradespeople throughout the UK.
Grocers and retailers will be targeted in the south and north of Wales and England’s northwest and southwest, along with hairdressers, beauty salons and tattooists in the northeast, restaurants in the southeast and the Solent area, and motor traders in Scotland.
“The range of groups targeted… shows how widely HMRC are casting their net,” remarked Gary Ashford of the Chartered Institute (CIOT).
Ashford, who represents the CIOT on the taxman’s compliance reform forum, repeated the institute’s call for a general disclosure facility that would afford taxpayers from all areas an opportunity to get their tax affairs in order at the cost of only minor fines.
He said, “There is a need for a clearly signposted, permanent route to enable anyone whose tax affairs have slipped… to do so. It would need to be clear what the penalties would be and the circumstances in which prosecution would be used. The aim has to be to encourage people to get back on track.”
The Revenue has launched 30 taskforces since May last year. They are specialist teams that undertake intensive bursts of activity, visiting taxpayers in sectors considered to be at high-risk of committing evasion. The department says it is on target to collect more than £50m as a result of taskforces launched in 2011/12.
The department’s director of general enforcement and compliance, Mike Eland, warned tax evaders that “HMRC is coming after you”.
He added, “This is not an empty threat. We can and will track you down if you choose to break the rules.”
