Legal profession targeted in tax cheat crackdown

Expected to recover more than £19.5 million from tax dodgers, the taskforces will target those who do not pay the right amount of tax in 

The legal profession in London

Grocery and retail in South and North Wales, the North West and the South West

Hair and beauty in the North East

Restaurants in the South East and Solent

The motor trade in Scotland

Taskforces are specialist teams that undertake intensive bursts of activity in specific high risk trade sectors and locations in the UK. The teams will visit traders to examine their records and carry out other investigations.

David Gauke, the Exchequer Secretary, said:

“We have made it clear that we will not tolerate tax evasion and we are determined to crack down on the minority who choose to break the rules. Everyone needs to pay the taxes they owe in full. It is not fair that at a time when most hard-working people are paying the right tax, others are trying to get out of paying what they should.”

HMRC’s Mike Eland, Director General Enforcement and Compliance, said:

“These taskforces bring together specialists from across HMRC to find people who are not paying what they should. If you have paid all your taxes you have nothing to worry about. But for those deliberately evading tax, be warned that HMRC is coming after you.

“This is not an empty threat - HMRC can and will track you down if you choose to break the rules. We are on target to collect more than £50 million as a result of taskforces launched in 2011/12.”

HMRC has launched 30 taskforces since May 2011. 

Taskforces are a result of the Government’s £917 million spending review investment to tackle tax evasion, avoidance and fraud from 2011/12, which aims to raise an additional £7 billion each year by 2014/15.

If you are aware of someone who is evading their taxes you can tell HMRC via the Tax Evasion Hotline by phone, on 0800 788 887, email or by post. Full details can be found here.

Notes to Editors

Taskforces bring together various HMRC compliance and enforcement teams for intensive bursts of activity targeted at specific sectors and locations where there is evidence of high risk of tax evasion. The first taskforce targeted the restaurant trade from 12 May 2011.

The taskforces are part of HMRC’s broader work to tackle evasion and avoidance which includes campaigns, Managing Deliberate Defaulters and offshore penalties.

Compliance activity through taskforces is 1:1 and targets the highest-risk cases in a particular sector and location, typically focusing on groups of up to around 300 customers.

Follow HMRC on Twitter @HMRCgovuk