HMRC taskforces pull in over half a billion
Five years since they were launched, HMRC taskforces have raised more than £500 million in additional taxes.
From time to time HMRC carries out campaigns aimed at businesses it considers risky and uses taskforces to compliment such campaigns by identifying and investigating individuals and businesses considered to be prone to tax evasion. Taskforces bring together various HMRC compliance and enforcement teams and the teams, estimated to be 350 strong, visit traders to examine their records and carry out other investigations.
HMRC has a wealth of intelligence at its fingertips and uses state-of-the-art digital tools, such as its ‘Connect’ computer system, to help them identify and target those who present the highest risk of deliberately evading tax.
Since 2011, HMRC has launched over 140 taskforces focusing on those sectors that are at the highest risk of tax fraud, including taxi firms, motor trade, restaurants, jewellery trade, rental property sector, wealthy tax cheats and the adult entertainment industry.
Last year, Kevin Brown, a carpet cleaner from Perth, was jailed for 12 months after a taskforce investigation discovered he had been claiming for over £250,000 in cleaning products in order to claim £35,000 in VAT refunds. HMRC estimated that had he spent that much on carpet cleaner then he would have bought enough to clean an area roughly equivalent to 30,000,000 square yards!
Lawrence Conway, a chartered surveyor from London, received an 18 month jail sentence in 2015 after HMRC caught him submitting fraudulent VAT repayment claims of just over £135,000 on behalf of a partnership called Tallulah Racing, for the cost of keeping a racehorse called Thunder Cat during the period 2003 – 2013. The Revenue’s investigation revealed that the horse had failed to race since a ninth place finish at Lingfield Park in 2001!
The extra revenue collected as a result of taskforce involvement saw a gradual increase during the first three years but has rocketed in the last couple of years:
| Year | Tax take (£) |
|---|---|
| 2011/12 | 24.3 million |
| 2012/13 | 47 million |
| 2013/14 | 85 million |
| 2014/15 | 138.1 million |
| 2015/16 | 248 million |
What is not known is how much taskforces cost but as a rough guide for every £1 that is spent on tax investigations it is repaid tenfold.
Whatever will they waste the pelf on first? Whatever it is, the NHS trump card will be brought out to justify it irrespective of how it is wasted, including within the NHS itself.