I defend individuals, businesses and companies who are under any sort of tax investigation or tax
enquiry by H M Revenue and Customs (HMRC) or have any sort of tax dispute with HMRC.
26/03/2012
Update on UK/Swiss Tax
Agreement - Inheritance Tax
15/12/2011
Swiss UK/Tax Agreement
19/09/2011
Wot! No News?
19/09/2011
Offshore Tax Evasion Penalties
Doubled
Tax Investigations
1.1 TAX FRAUD ALLEGATIONS
Firstly there is the Civil Investigation of Fraud (CIF) under Code of Practice 9 (COP 9) whether by a CIF unit or by
Special Civil Investigations (SCI). There are great risks involved with this type of investigation and they are rarely
handled by anyone other than a Tax Investigation specialist.
Basically, in exchange for an immunity from prosecution, HMRC will expect, within a tight time scale, a full
confession, which is then made by way of a very detailed disclosure report. HMRC will test the report.; the amount of
testing not only being dependent upon the size and complexity of the disclosure, but also on the trust that is built up
with the taxpayer and the taxpayer’s adviser. COP 9 has been withdrawn, and a prosecution commenced, where the
confession has been found to be materially incorrect or incomplete.
I have handled many many COP 9 cases, the majority of which have been referred to me by the taxpayer’s
accountants or solicitors who recognised the need for their clients to obtain specialist advice.
If the worse has come to the worst and you are facing Criminal Prosecution, either under common law or the tax
specific Section 144 Finance Act 2000 (“knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of income tax”), then I can
introduce you to, and work with, a number of specialist criminal lawyers.
1.2 OFFSHORE DISCLOSURE FACULTY
It has always been HMRC’s view that that much of the money held in offshore bank accounts had escaped taxation -
not just the interest credited to the account but also the source of the deposits.
After many years HMRC obtained detailed information about UK resident individuals and companies that held bank
accounts offshore and they launched the “Offshore Disclosure Facility” (ODF). Those affected were invited to make a
voluntary disclosure under a specific procedure. Some called it a Tax Amnesty but taxpayers were required to pay the
tax and interest on that tax.
They did however only have to pay a much reduced penalty (equal to 10% of the tax). I helped many people take
advantage of the opportunity to correct any errors or mistakes made and indeed helped to reassure a number of
others that they did not have a tax problem.
Despite the fact that the initiative was labelled as being “Offshore Disclosure”, taxpayers could infact use the facility
to disclose ANY tax irregularities to HMRC.
HMRC collected £400m as a result of this initiative but this was far less than many had predicted. In my opinion there
were a number of reasons for this. For a start, ODF was not that well advertised so many affected may not have even
known about the facility. Also, there was no immunity from prosecution given at the outset. Fear of prosecution may
have persuaded some to keep quiet, whereas it did infact prove possible on a case by case basis to get that
immunity from HMRC before the disclosure was made - provided of course that the taxpayer did make a full
disclosure.
HMRC is currently investigating incorrect disclosures made under ODF, and is pursuing those who chose not to come
forward. In the most serious cases HMRC will prosecute. If any of this affects you, I can help. Having obtained further
information about offshore accounts, HMRC has announced that a further Offshore Disclosure Facility (called the
"New Disclosure Opportunity" (NDO)) will commence on 1 September 2009. See “News” for further information
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