Penalties for failure to comply with notices under FA 2008
A bogus financial adviser was jailed for three years after Hull Crown Court heard that he persuaded more than 30 people to make unauthorised transfers of £3.4m from pension funds to avoid paying tax of £1.9m.
The Chartered Institute of Taxation has commended HMRC’s ‘willingness to listen’ to criticisms of the department’s original proposals to tackle dishonest conduct by tax agents.
‘The world has changed for tax evaders,’ Dave Hartnett, Permanent Secretary for Tax at HMRC, said as HM Treasury announced yesterday’s agreement with Switzerland to address evasion by UK taxpayers.
The UK’s tax deal with Switzerland is expected to come into force in 2013, following scrutiny by Parliament and after ratification procedures in Switzerland are complete, HM Treasury said.
An ‘historic’ agreement with Switzerland will resolve abuse of Swiss banking secrecy by UK taxpayers and is expected to secure billions of pounds of unpaid tax from 2013, HM Treasury announced last night.
Draft guidance for HMRC staff on the department’s updated Litigation and Settlement Strategy (LSS) runs to 45 pages.
The ‘refreshed’ LSS published last month sets out the principles governing HMRC’s handling of disputes in relation to taxes, duties and tax credits.
‘These arrests are just the start,’ said a senior HMRC official as the department announced the arrest of five plumbers in London, Hampshire, Surrey, Middlesex and the West Midlands.
More than 600 tax enquiries targeting people in the plumbing industry will be under way by the time the Plumbers Tax Safe Plan disclosure opportunity closes at the end of this month, HMRC have warned.
HMRC are inviting comments on a proposed contractual disclosure facility to tighten the department’s procedures for the civil investigation of fraud and identify taxpayers who are not ‘honestly engaged’ with the system.