Thursday 8 September 2011

How To Use HMRC To Launder Money

Jonathan Fisher QC this week presented the 29th International Symposium on Economic Crime at Jesus College, Cambridge, with a simple guide on how to use HMRC to launder money.

 “Organised criminals set up or take over legitimate companies and predict excessive corporation tax profits for the company year. The companies pay large sums in provisional tax based on predicted profits, with these monies having been derived from criminal activity. Later, the company’s accountant approaches the tax authority to explain that profits had been far lower than anticipated and in this way obtain a tax rebate. 

The second way in which HMRC has found itself penetrated by criminals for money laundering purposes takes place with the active encouragement and support of the Government.

Since 2007 HMRC has offered taxpayers a variety of different disclosure opportunities to encourage the voluntary disclosure of taxable income on hidden assets in return for beneficial tax treatment. The opportunity presented to money launderers to legitimatise the monies from their illegal activities and bring them into the financial system is colossal”.

HMRC are of the view that he doesn't know what he is talking about, and told the Telegraph:

"This is complete nonsense, there is not a shred of evidence to support these claims. HMRC has robust measures in place to prevent fraud against the tax system."

Herein I would like to ask my loyal readers, how robust are the anti money laundering measures at HMRC then?
Tax does have to be taxing.

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9 comments:

  1. Getting a bit thin, Ken, some of this, isn't it? What, 8 comments in response to your last 3 or 4 posts........?

    HMRCISSHITEISSHITE?

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  2. At 18:53 an HMRC lackey wrote "Getting a bit thin, Ken, some of this, isn't it?". The only thing getting thin is our credulity and HMRC credibility. I think everyone is NUMBED by the SHITE that Ken is unravelling nearly every day. Keep it up Ken, most of us are glad you're prepared to keep digging up HMRC shite.

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  3. Oh, an HMRC lackey? Glad to see, as predicted, the mouth breathers are back. The rest of them are clearly too numbed to comment on this thin old fare......

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  4. Simple answer Ken, they are not.

    Its all been stated before, here and elsewhere and one of the best reads of recent time "Treasure Islands" portrays the truth with a clarity not seen for some time.

    Jonathan Fisher QC is obviously one of the legal profession who is not afraid to tell it as it is, well done sir!

    So, get yourselves an offshore haven, good advice, available free of charge via HMRC easy as that, almost. The 2 examples quoted are merely the tip of a rather large iceberg.

    Anyway there is tax there is possibility.

    18:53/20:29 - back in your basket good dog!

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  5. A new twist on what we used to call the casino scam. Got some dodgy money that needs to become legit? Go to a casino, drop it in with the cashier and turn it into chips. Mooch around for a bit, have a drink, even play for a while. Then cash your chips and ask for a casino cheque. Bingo, your dodgy money is now legitimate casino winnings!

    However, doing it via HMRC would add an extra veneer of authenticity/respectability and it wouldn't be restricted to limited companies; false sole trader records could be used in the same way. With their system of "process now, check later", which actually means "process now, bin any paperwork and then do F*** all", you'd be virtually guaranteed to get away with it. After all, casinos are legitimate businesses and have compliance measures in place, whereas HMRC is, as we all know, shite.

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  6. If there is an open door, not many walk past, some will look in, but there are always those who will walk through the opening.

    Then there is human nature, you can't check everything, not enough people and impractible and not acceptible. If an entity wants to pay tax and does so and another entity does not want to pay the same amount where do you focus?

    The difference between avoidance and evasion is blurred, laundering is a bit akin to invisible ink.

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  7. Frost and Murphy in agreement! Well well, who'dve thought it? ;)

    Stew G

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  8. Frost & Murphy in agreement...

    Perhaps there is something in all this HMRCISSHITE after all?

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  9. "Perhaps there is something in all this HMRCISSHITE after all?"

    While - being an adult and all that - I wouldn't quite put it quite in those terms, I would agree that HMRC is suffering from blatant mismanagement and regulatory capture (to name but 2 causes), which has led to administrative chaos, knee-jerk heavy-handedness to the little guys and at least the appearance of collusion with the big guys (to name but 3 symptoms).

    I think both Ken and Richard would agree with at least the spirit of that (though Richard may be less enthusiastic about the 2nd symptom and I can't recall Ken having blogged much on the 2nd cause or the last symptom). However I also think there's probably a difference between them in that Richard wants to solve the problems and regularly makes constructive suggestions for how to do so. Ken's agenda is less clear, but appears to have a lot to do with allowing the rich to pay (even) less tax. Witness his enthusiasm for flat tax. Undermining HMRC even more than they seem to be quite capable of doing themselves seems to be primarily a means to this end for him.

    Stew G

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