HMRC crackdown on tax evasion recorded by law firm
LONDON (ShareCast) – HMRC issued 1,502 legal notices in the year to 31 March 2014 demanding information on tax investigation targets. This figure is up from 1,490 the previous year.
City law firm RPC (NYSE: RES – news) announced on Monday that HMRC is increasingly requiring accountancy and legal firms to hand over documents and information relating to current or former clients involved in criminal tax investigations.
These notices were issued by HMRC’s Criminal Investigation Directorate as part of a “crackdown on tax evasion”.
According to Tax and Corporate Investigations partner Adam Craggs, “HMRC is becoming more reliant on the documentation and information it obtains from professional advisers when building a criminal case against taxpayers”.
He explained: “That’s why so many accountancy and legal firms are being hit with disclosure notices, which can be very time-consuming and stressful to deal with.” Craggs added that the disclosure notices can be “surprisingly expensive” for firms that have to then trawl through data to locate information.
