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HMRC's latest campaign to target tax-dodging solicitors

Rebecca Rutt
by Lovemoney Staff Rebecca Rutt on 19 September 2012  |  Comments 15 comments

HMRC's latest campaign is targetting a host of workers including the legal profession in London and the motor industry in Scotland.

HMRC's latest campaign to target tax-dodging solicitors

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is clamping down on solicitors and barristers in London who are expected to owe around £3 million in tax payments.

This is all part of a new taskforce which has been launched by the taxman to recover more than £19.5 million from workers across the country.

Who is HMRC after?

Along with lawyers in London, the grocery and retail trade in South and North Wales and the South West of England, hair and beauty professionals in the North East, restaurant businesses in the South East and Solent and the motor trade in Scotland are all being investigated.

HMRC has identified them as "high-risk trade sectors and locations".

The traders on the HMRC list have been picked out because they’re either not paying their taxes at all or paying the wrong amount. The new taskforce will undertake "intensive bursts of activity" in these areas. Those on the list will be visited and their financial records examined.

Previous taskforce launches

Since May 2011 HMRC has launched 30 specialist taskforces like this to try to track down tax dodgers across the country.

These have looked into workers in a wide range of sectors including clothing, the motor industry, direct sellers, landlords and market traders as well as those in the restaurant and scrap metal sectors.

They were set up following the Government’s £917 million investment to try and tackle tax evasion, avoidance and fraud from 2011/12 and its aim is to raise £7 billion each year by 2014/15.

What happens if HMRC finds you?

Various campaigns are being launched across the internet and TV channels to alert people to the fact that HMRC is on a mission to find and expose tax dodgers.

Within the information released by HMRC is quite a lot of warnings. Mike Eland, director general for enforcement and compliance at HMRC, rather ominously says: "Those deliberately evading tax, be warned that HMRC is coming after you.

"This is not an empty threat - HMRC can and will track you down if you choose to break the rules."

In reality if HMRC does locate you and find you guilty of tax evasion you’re likely to face a significant fine and possibly a criminal investigation.

Do you agree with HMRC’s latest campaign and is it right to focus on individuals? Let me know in the comment box below.

More on taxes:

Watch out for these HMRC tax refund scams

The taxman is watching your eBay account

HMRC: act now to avoid late tax fines

How to get a tax refund

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Comments (15)

  • grainyme
    Love rating 0
    grainyme said

    The questions about this campaign, is will they collect enough to cover the money spent.

    Will small traders be able to pay what they owe plus penalties. If they go bankrupt will this benefit the economy.

    Report on 19 September 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • simongrenshaw@yahoo.com
    Love rating 2
    simongrenshaw@yahoo.com said

    I think everyone should pay their fair share of tax and then hopefully tax would come down for all of us especially the low paid. The government say you need a minimum of £15,000 to live on and yet they tax you on £8,000 and above and if your lucky enough to have children they bump up your money with benefits. If you are a low paid and single or a couple without children you are taxed and left to sink.

    I would also like people that are caught fiddling treated the same way as the bankers and MPs who after all should have been setting a good example, in other words a slap on the wrist. No wonder people aren't very honest when we see our leaders and elite fiddling and cheating and getting off light. Ordinary people pay their taxes and really struggle to get by or get into debt because they have to pay tax on low wages.

    Report on 19 September 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • fender
    Love rating 20
    fender said

    The taxman should start with investigating the royals if they have nothing to do.

    How much will the latest farce over a few pictures in Paris cost the public? Surely these legal fee's should be a benefit in kind that the royals should have funded themselves.

    Who paid for their latest first class all the way far east trip for them and their army of helpers?

    How many millions over all do they cost us every year on these fun all the way trips?

    If that was a regular business man taking his wife with him let alone an army of helpers hairdressers of god know what else. The that businessman would of been taxed on the cost. No way would the tax payer of ended up picking up the tab.

    So if the taxman wants to start harrassing small business for extra revenue then why not start at the top and work their way down.

    Report on 19 September 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • far1034
    Love rating 0
    far1034 said

    How about HMRC start going after Barclays and other corporate firms that only paid 4% tax on their profits.

    Report on 19 September 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • Aitken B
    Love rating 125
    Aitken B said

    Oooooo! What a dilema.

    Who is at the bottom of the "like" list, TAX gatherers or solicitors?

    Report on 19 September 2012  |  Love thisLove  1 love
  • fender
    Love rating 20
    fender said

    Aitken.

    What a dilema.

    Both are shysters and out for what they can get so lets leave them both there together.

    Mind you on second thoughts at least with lawyers you do have a choice whereas the taxman when they start one of their so called enquiries make it up as they go along, yes anything for a bonus so maybe they should share the gutter with bankers.

    Report on 19 September 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • UKinformedinvestor
    Love rating 1
    UKinformedinvestor said

    As a Company that deals in tax matters both as accountants and lawyers we find that HMRC are firstly using inadmissable evidence in regards to so called tax avoidance- furteher if we listed "loopholes" the most commonly used ones are: National Savings and ISAs- if they are legal then so are all the others. In the case of King v United Kingdom in the European Courts it was upheld that where HMRC prolonged cases they were not entitled to interest . So what do they do? They try & make new deals for lower interest if the taxpayer settles - in fact the tax payer does not owe interest at all in such matters. Our policy- contest everything & block the system up until they obey the law!

    Report on 19 September 2012  |  Love thisLove  1 love
  • laplennerie
    Love rating 20
    laplennerie said

    Members of Parliament who dodged capital gains tax by flipping main residences!!!!!!!!

    They are still at it today.

    Report on 19 September 2012  |  Love thisLove  1 love
  • electricblue
    Love rating 653
    electricblue said

    HMRC cannot currently find their rears with a map. Chances of them winning contested cases on the basis of their current organisation standards are pretty low. I received a threatening letter from a firm of solicitors supposedly acting for the Inland Revenue in pursuing for unpaid tax. Apparently HMRC have privatised the final enforcement. Big problem for the idiot solicitors (who are unbelievably rude on the telephone) is that I not only don't owe any tax but am actually in credit, as a couple of issues were sorted with HMRC in a statement dated TWO MONTHS before the threatening letters. HMRC say the solicitors have access to their database and should confirm before threatening, solicitors say they don't have access and HMRC did not update them. Laughable.

    @fender

    Grow up !. The Royals don't have to pay tax for the most part and actually pay huge amounts on a voluntary basis. I can't stand the Royals in the least, but their 'tax evasion' is not really anything I'd lose any sleep over. Leave poor 'Liz the lizard' out of this issue, please.

    Report on 19 September 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • fender
    Love rating 20
    fender said

    Electric Blue.

    Well maybe the royals should simply start paying their way instead of sponging off the rest of us.

    Report on 19 September 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • oldhenry
    Love rating 274
    oldhenry said

    Mr fender( or mrs,miss) If the Royal Family were not head of state than someone else would be and they would cost a lot of money. Just look at other country's and you will see that in the UK at least we have a stable queen. The great travels of the royal family are really about trade. They are sent by the government t drum up sales of , mainly, arms. It would be no good sending Cameron on a goodwill visit , the countries would just laugh at him.

    As for the taxman pursuing various piffling sums, well, just pursue Vodafone and the merchant banks. No, of course not as they are mates of Osborne and Cameron and the latter pair will be looking for lucrative jobs in a couple of years time.

    Report on 19 September 2012  |  Love thisLove  1 love
  • centreback
    Love rating 0
    centreback said

    Words can't describe the sham at HMRC. As others have said, HMRC ignore the big fish like the banks and attack individuals and SMEs. I made a mistake in my return amongst the mass of useless paper from redundancy (companies don't have to issue a P60 to the employee but do to HMRC!). Instead of HMRC just collecting what was due, I was hit with a fine and interest. In the end I couldn't stand the endless merry-go-round of letters and spent a significant chunk of my redundancy money to pay them off and get them off my back. After 8 months I'm still out of work with no income and no benefits as I'm a homeowner. After 45 years of paying into the welfare system and getting nothing back (worse - their barefaced theft), I hope HMRC and the Government toads rot in hell.

    Report on 19 September 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • finnol49
    Love rating 22
    finnol49 said

    Perhaps HMRC should do what the tax authorities in Italy are doing - turn over people with conspicuous wealth. There are a lot of empty marinas & cheap second-hand Ferraris for sale, so effective is the collection of unpaid taxes & the desire to avoid getting caught. Instead, HMRC target lower-paid people who can't afford the £1000s to pay fees to accountants & solicitors to get them off.

    Report on 19 September 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • exportlink88
    Love rating 24
    exportlink88 said

    If only successive governments would spend our tax money as if it were their own, none of us would need to be paying so much of it and there wont be any profit in evasion or necessity for avoidance. I for one would be a lot happier paying my dues. Right now, I just feel like I am being robbed by thieves in uniform.

    Fender : your ignorance is overwhelming. Even I, a foreigner, know that the income from the private estates which royal family gives up to the country is several times more than the stipend they receive from parliament. And they dont just get 'paid' for doing nothing - if only half of us would work half as hard as they do instead of sponging off the state, this country would be in a much better position today.

    Report on 20 September 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • electricblue
    Love rating 653
    electricblue said

    @Fender

    I hope our dear editor will forgive my voicing my opinion that from your comments and their innaccuracy, you are hardly smart enough to be earning enough money for anyone else to benefit from your taxes.

    Report on 20 September 2012  |  Love thisLove  1 love

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