HMRC name and shame list grows

In accordance with legislation HMRC may publish information about a deliberate tax defaulter where:

  • HMRC have carried out an investigation and the person has been charged one or more penalties for deliberate defaults, and
  • those penalties involve tax of more than £25,000.

However, their information will not be published if the person earns the maximum reduction of the penalties by fully disclosing details of the defaults. HMRC will publish sufficient information to identify the deliberate tax defaulter, the penalties imposed for their deliberate defaults and the amount of tax on which those penalties are based. This sufficient information includes the name of the taxpayer and their postal address.

The first list was posted on HMRC’s website on 21 February 2013. A further list was added on 14 May 2013.

It is important to understand that these lists are tax cheats, HMRC are not legally entitled to name anyone who has not broken the law, so those involved in legal tax planning, no matter how agressive, have nothing to worry about.