Campaign targets till fraud

On 18 May HMRC officers visited 30 businesses including shops takeaways and restaurants in nine counties across the country and arrested three people in a day of action after new powers were introduced in the fight against till fraud (FA 2022 Sch 14).

Businesses involved in making supplying or promoting electronic sales suppression (ESS) systems that help users hide or reduce the value of till sales now face fines of up to £50 000 and criminal investigations. Users also face fines as HMRC increases efforts to target the tax evasion practice.

Users of ESS will either have access to specialist software or will configure their electronic point of sale device in a specific way that allows them to hide true sales and the resulting tax that is due. Sales processed through the till give the...