Penalties against finance directors by HMRC drop sharply

The number of penalties issued personally to finance directors at large businesses by HMRC has dropped from 148 to just 20 in a year says Pinsent Masons.

The international law firm attributes much of the fall to HMRC having to shift the focus of its investigations away from tax disputes with big businesses to investigating furlough fraud.

Further it seems the department has also been taking a more selective approach to fining finance directors. For example it will now consider waiving a fine for technical breach of the tax accounting rules if HMRC is comfortable that no actual tax is owed.

Pinsent Masons' partner Jake Landman said: ‘The investigations into furlough fraud mean HMRC has bigger fish to fry but that will change. As more furlough fraud cases are closed and the lockdown finally ends we would expect compliance work focused on big businesses to...