HMRC gets tough on persistent tax evaders

As Bob said, “You don’t have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows” and it’s not news that HMRC has spent the last four years amassing eye watering power, what perhaps is new is that it’s Middle England that is going to take the squeeze.

Here’s the reasoning: poor people, even if they are scamming the system, they are poor – so no real point in hammering people with no money (other than for sport). OK what about the rich? Well two problems there: first the rich can afford good representation and secondly if you want to bring in really big money there are simply not that many rich people. So that leaves Middle England to feel the HMRC pinch.

Today the Guardian wrote, “The taxman has written to the most persistent tax evaders in the country telling them they are “on probation”, in a crackdown on evasion which will see the worst offenders named and shamed… HM Revenue & Customs began sending letters to 900 tax evaders notifying them that they are on a hitlist. The latest intervention adds to rules introduced this time last year allowing HMRC to name those guilty of persistent offences.”

The paper seems to have missed the “innocent until proven guilty” principle we have here in the UK, but that’s OK becasue HMRC forgot about that a long time ago too.

Read the full Guardian article here.