HMRC has announced that 2 of its new Taskforces will be assigned to North Wales in order to seek out fraudulent tax evaders. The areas under scrutiny are self-employed traders in the construction industry, and private landlords who own 3 or more properties. Individuals under suspicion could expect an in depth compliance review, which would include looking at accounting records, invoices and declarations for tax returns to ensure there has been no understatement.
Whilst honest businesses have nothing to fear, anyone caught out by the task forces can expect to be treated with very little sympathy, as HMRC seek to raise the additional £7billion per year from evasion, avoidance and fraud it has been tasked with by the Government.
Anyone who may be worried about this is strongly advised to seek specialist guidance immediately. HMRC have indicated that they hope the Taskforces will serve as a deterrent, by means of ‘naming and shaming’ those caught out, in addition to using the full range of civil and criminal sanctions available
Taskforces are teams of compliance officers from across HMRC – including Criminal Investigations, Specialist Investigations and Local Compliance. They will be deployed for a fixed period of time, working to challenge evasion. The nature of the work may mean that some cases will take an extended period to finalise.
There are some similarities between these new Taskforces and HMRC’s ‘Campaigns’ such as the Lichtenstein Disclosure Facility. However, Taskforces do not offer a formal disclosure opportunity (and the associated leniency on penalties). Taskforces are directed at populations where the risk of deliberate evasion (rather than simple errors) appears greater.
