Helen Adams of BDO recently wrote about HMRC's powers to publicly "spank" (name and shame) taxpayers who deliberately evade tax after 1 April 2010 and who are charged a tax-geared penalty as a result.
HMRC can publish the following information, unless doing so would prejudice an ongoing criminal investigation or cause serious risk to the taxpayer’s safety:
- The taxpayer’s name (including a trading name or pseudonym);
- The taxpayer’s address or registered office address;
- The nature of the taxpayer’s business;
- The amount of the penalties charged and the tax involved;
- The periods when the errors arose; and
- Any other information that HMRC considers necessary in order to make the taxpayer’s identity clear.
Taxpayers cannot appeal against the decision to publish their details, although they can appeal against the imposition and level of the penalty.
However, HMRC will not publish a taxpayer’s details if the tax they deliberately evaded is less than £25K or if the taxpayer voluntarily tells HMRC about the errors before HMRC begin a compliance check.
You have been warned!
Tax does have to be taxing.
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What about getting the senior management of HMRC to write letters of apology to those taxpayers whose records, private details etc they've screwed up or lost.
ReplyDeleteTheyve a F***in cheek.
As they say in Australia:
ReplyDelete'BRACE YERSELF SHEILA!'
EXCOM are the people who want fining, naming and shaming, dragging naked through the streets and publically flogged, hung drawn and quartered etc etc etc
ReplyDeleteI could go on butI am only saying what everybody wants & know already...
What about government procurement card abuse, is HMRC immune from the current isues surrounding how these cards are used.
ReplyDeleteIf its true that there is no accountibility below £1000 expenditure that is a disgrace compared to the tight checks placed on the spending of the lower grades.
Shame? Famous actual or supposed tax dodgers like Lester Piggot, Ken Dodd, Pavarroti, Wesley Snipes etc all automatically go onto my list of absolute heros!!
ReplyDeleteThere are reports that in parts of Ireland (where name and shame has been around for a while) that it's seen as a badge of honour: http://www.edftax.co.uk/assets/Docs/tolleys-practical-tax-living-with-naming-and-shaming-df.pdf
ReplyDeleteI have 1 question, Who exactly comes up with this sh*t?
ReplyDeleteDon't they have anything better to do?
oops! sorry that was 2?
The Irish, apparently! ;)
ReplyDelete@16 August 2011 18:15
ReplyDeleteErr... the government?
Also Kens report of this is dubious around the facts as usual. There doesn't appear to be a specific appeal process, but paragraph 6 of the section of the act in the link above does suggest that some consideration should be given to the taxpayer before publishing their details.
18 Aug @ 08:32
ReplyDeleteSo why don't the powers that be in HMRC tell THE GOVERNMENT what a f***ing stupid idea it is? Is it because they are too busy trying to deal with all the other stupid ideas?