HMRC's Grim RIPA

PAC has criticised HMRC's use of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (Ripa) to examine the belongings, emails, internet search records and phone calls of their own solicitor, Osita Mba, and the phone records of his then wife.

The justification of the use of these powers by HMRC was that it wanted to find out if Mba had spoken to the Guardian’s former investigations editor, David Leigh.

A report by MPs on the Commons public accounts committee praised Mba for exposing the “sweetheart” deal and called for further scrutiny of HM Revenue’s use of Ripa powers.

As per the Guardian:

“We consider that HMRC’s use of powers, reserved for tackling serious criminals, against Mr Osita Mba was indefensible ... HMRC should tell us when it makes use of the powers granted to it under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act against whistleblowers from within HMRC.”

When HMRC turns on its own people, it seems to display a rather nasty streak! 

Tax does have to be taxing.

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Whistleblowing - Osita Mba Attends PAC

Osita Mba (ex HMRC Solicitor) attended yesterday's PAC hearing on Whistleblwoing.

Witnesses

1. Kay Sheldon, Care Quality Commission, Cathy James, Chief Executive, Public Concern at Work, and Osita Mba, former HMRC employee
2. Lin Homer, Chief Executive and Permanent Secretary, HM Revenue and Customs, Jonathan Slater, Director General Transformation and Corporate Strategy, Ministry of Defence, Chris Wormald, Permanent Secretary, Department for Education, and Charlie Massey, Director General, Strategy and External Relations, Department of Health

Lin Homer had told the public accounts committee that phone records had been obtained using the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) to unearth information about Osita Mba.

Margaret Hodge said that HMRC's use of the anti terrorism powers, ostensibly to track down whether Mba had been talking to the Guardian's then investigations editor, David Leigh, had "shocked her to her bones".

Hodge told Homer she was particularly surprised "that you made a request under Ripa, which is there to deal with terrorism". She asked for assurances that HMRC would "never again use these powers on a whistleblower".

Homer of course wouldn't give such an assurance, as per the Guardian:

"You know that we cannot offer carte blanche assurances for evermore that we won't use these … I have other duties of care to parliament and other individuals."

Power corrupts, the more power given the HMRC the more liukely it is that it will be corrupted.

Tax does have to be taxing.

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Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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Power Corrupts - HMRC Uses RIPA On Osita Mba

In March I asked the following question:

"Where is whistleblower Osita Mba?"

By happenstance, on the 29th of April, The Guardian provided a rather detailed and interesting update as to what HMRC have been doing to Mr Mba.

It transpires that HMRC used their powers, normally reserved for catching serious criminals (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 - Ripa brought in by parliament on the pretext of catching terrorists), to search the belongings, emails, internet records and phone calls of Mr Mba and his wife.

For why?

HMRC wanted to prove that Mr Mba had spoken to the Guardian's former investigations editor David Leigh.

Seemingly HMRC could find no proof of any contact.

Cathy James, the head of the whistleblowers' charity, Public Concern at Work, regards this as "sinister" and is quoted:

"The actions of the HMRC in this case are very much a step in the wrong direction, more likely to result in a culture of silence with more anonymous leaking than anything else. It is a case of shoot – and silence – the messengers."

David Leigh, who retired from the Guardian last month, said:

"The revenue's decision to use these powers to try and find a link with a journalist when the disclosure was so obviously in the public interest was heavy-handed and foolish, and shows the level of paranoia over their tax deals."

Mr Mba's employment tribunal claim continues and is expected to be heard in the autumn.

As I have noted before, the more powers that are granted to organisations such as HMRC the more they will abuse and misuse them.

I reproduce the full text of the Guardian's article below, comments and views are as ever always welcome.

"Tax officials used intrusive investigative powers meant to catch serious criminals to try to prove that a whistleblower who uncovered a "sweetheart" deal with Goldman Sachs had spoken to the Guardian, it has emerged.

The belongings, emails, internet search records and phone calls of the HM Revenue and Customs solicitor Osita Mba and the phone records of his wife, Claudia, were examined by investigators, according to previously undisclosed documents.

The powers, which are supposed to be used to combat large-scale criminal tax frauds, were used because the tax inspectors suspected that Mba had been in contact with the Guardian's former investigations editor, David Leigh.

Leigh's telephone numbers and email addresses were cross-referenced with Mba's, but investigators found no evidence of contact, documents show.

The disclosure has prompted serious questions about HMRC's behaviour.

Cathy James, the head of the whistleblowers' charity, Public Concern at Work, said the decision to use intrusive powers to examine an employee who made claims using whistleblowing legislation was "outrageous" and "sinister".

"The actions of the HMRC in this case are very much a step in the wrong direction, more likely to result in a culture of silence with more anonymous leaking than anything else. It is a case of shoot – and silence – the messengers," she said.

Using the Public Interest Disclosure Act, Mba wrote to the National Audit Office (NAO) and two parliamentary committees in confidence in 2011 saying that the head of tax, Dave Hartnett, had "let off" Goldman Sachs from paying at least £10m in interest.

Emails show Mba's identity was disclosed to the revenue in October 2011 by the former clerk of the public accounts committee, who had sought clarification that Mba was their employee. The next day, a member of the HMRC's security staff sought to obtain access to Mba's office cabinet beneath his desk in Whitehall. "Thanks. Did you manage to get cabinet key number?" he asked a colleague.

The man also received an email containing the solicitor's private email address, his mobile number, his home telephone number and his wife's telephone details.

On 11 October 2011, the Guardian published a story under the headline "Goldman Sachs let off paying £10m interest on failed tax avoidance scheme", written by Leigh. Publication prompted members of the revenue's criminal investigative unit to take action. One named internal criminal investigator sent an email on 19 October to a colleague saying that the revenue had begun "a review of the suspect's [Mba's] H drive [the hard drive used within HMRC] and email traffic and internet usage", but inquiries had revealed nothing.

He then proposed a "further interrogation of computer material" and an "itemised billing check", and wrote that "consultations with the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] can proceed".

Using the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (Ripa), HMRC can see websites viewed by taxpayers, where a mobile phone call was made or received, and the date and time of emails, texts and phone calls. According to the revenue website, these powers "can only be used when investigating serious crime". But the papers disclose that applications were granted to investigate Mba using Ripa.

On 21 October 2011, tax officials applied for an itemised billing request to check a mobile of Mba's, documents show.

One document read: "David Leigh, who was given HMRC material discussing a named taxpayers tax affairs advised a senior employee of HMRC that he had been given access to that material on the 4th or 5th October 2011 and in it he quoted extracts from an HMRC minute of 8/12/2010. He was clearly given information which if provided by an HMRC employee was in contravention of CRCA [Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005]."

Ten days later, another investigator sent a document, entitled leakupdate4, to colleagues showing they had failed to identify any illegal activity through IT checks, emails, intranet and internet usage and checks from Mba's office telephone.

Investigators also circulated Leigh's office and mobile number among staff so that they could be cross-referenced with Mba's numbers.

A memo sent in December 2011 said the revenue had checked Leigh's details but found no evidence of contact with Mba.

Leigh, who retired from the Guardian last month, said: "The revenue's decision to use these powers to try and find a link with a journalist when the disclosure was so obviously in the public interest was heavy-handed and foolish, and shows the level of paranoia over their tax deals."

Mba was suspended from work, as the Guardian revealed on 8 December 2011, when public accounts committee members warned revenue officials not to harass or bully him. However, the organisation continued to receive and detail his phone records, documents show. The inquiry was abandoned on 11 January 2012.

Mba, who trained as a barrister in Nigeria and completed his master's degree at Oxford, worked in the personal tax litigation team that dealt with the Goldman Sachs tax issue. He told the NAO and two parliamentary committees that the bank's settlement had been agreed with a handshake by Hartnett, the permanent secretary for tax at HMRC.

Mba believed the deal could be illegal, and told auditors he was making the disclosure under whistleblowing legislation. His evidence led to Hartnett's being accused of lying to parliament over his role in the Goldman Sachs deal, which he denied. He admitted, however, that his organisation had made a mistake by approving the deal.

In June 2012, Mba filed a claim under the Public Interest Disclosure Act in the central London employment tribunal. In November 2012, HMRC ordered Mba to return to work in a different team.
In 2011, HMRC was authorised under Ripa to view 14,381 items of "communications data" on taxpayers while investigating tax evasion, compared with 11,513 items in 2010, according to figures released under the Freedom of Information Act.

The employment tribunal claim continues and is expected to be heard in the autumn. HMRC declined to comment when contacted on Monday."

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

The Grim RIPA

As the power of HMRC grows, and the political pressure to bring in more tax revenue increases, so does HMRC's temptation to spy on taxpayers.

The Telegraph reports that an FOI request shows that HMRC officials made almost 14,400 authorised views of "communications data" on taxpayers during tax evasion investigations.

This compares to more than 11,500 such views in 2010, an increase of almost 25%.

HMRC uses the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA), the same act used by local councils to spy on their residents, to access details on what websites are viewed by taxpayers, where a mobile phone call was made or received and the date and time of emails, texts and phone calls.

From October 2011 to the end of September 2012, HMRC was given 172 authorisations for "directed surveillance", covert surveillance, mainly in public places.

HMRC won't tell the media how many times the surveillance has led to a successful prosecution for tax evasion, or whether those found to be innocent are told that they have been spied on.

HMRC have also refused to disclose how many times it had been given warrants to intercept and read peoples' private emails, or listen to their phone calls.

An HMRC spokesman said:

“Our use of these powers is subject to regular independent inspection, ensuring it is both proportionate and lawful."

The use of RIPA is not well regulated, as evidenced by the absurdly petty nature of RIPA surveillance carried out by local councils.

Power corrupts!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

The Grim RIPA

It would appear that HMRC have jumped on the bandwagon of our "beloved" and "respected" local councils, they have started to use the Regulation of Investigative Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) to spy on suspected tax evaders.

RIPA was, in theory, passed to allow counter terrorism agencies to monitor terrorist suspects and serious criminal activity. However, local councils have been using it for all manner of non terrorist activity (eg monitoring suspect dog fouling owners).

HMRC have now got in on the act and, according to a Parliamentary answer, have been granted the right to use RIPA 5,492 times in 2009.

According to the Telegraph, this is an 80% increase in four years.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"