£400,000 paid to informants in past year

HMRC paid informants £400 000 for tip-offs about tax fraud in the year to 31 March 2021 according to RPC.

The City law firm says it is likely that a proportion of the money paid to informants would have been for information relating to abuse of Covid support schemes including the furlough scheme. The dedicated hotline set up by HMRC to enable people to report suspected abuse of the furlough scheme had received more than 28 000 reports by the end of June 2021.

The size of payment to an informant is decided case by case however it is often based on the amount of money HMRC expects to recover as a result of the information.

Many investigations into furlough fraud will have been triggered by information provided by disgruntled or former employees seeking to punish bosses they feel have wronged them.

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