viernes, 4 de enero de 2013

HMRC publishes Flickr gallery of 2012's 'top tax criminals' - The Guardian

A rogues' gallery of Britain's top tax criminals of 2012, ranging from cigarette and alcohol smugglers to professionals who set up complex avoidance schemes for the rich, has been published online for the first time by HM Revenue & Customs.

HMRC posted pictures of the 32 tax cheats, who were last year sentenced to a total of 155 years and 10 months behind bars, have been on the image and video hosting site Flickr.

They include four men jailed for a total of 21 years and three months for one of the biggest alcohol smuggling frauds uncovered in the UK, worth £50m a year.

Among the named and shamed are a garlic importer, platinum traders, dealers in bogus carbon credits and sophisticated carousel fraudsters who obtained VAT rebates worth millions on mobile phones.

Only one of the top tax criminals was a professional tax adviser: Roy Faichney of Pinner in Middlesex. He helped operate a fraudulent £70m tax avoidance scheme sold to wealthy customers, but was jailed in October for four years.

David Gauke, the exchequer secretary to the Treasury, said: "We hope that publishing these pictures will help get across that it always makes sense to declare all your income, and tax dodgers are simply storing up trouble for the future.

"Most people play by the rules and pay what they owe, but HMRC is cracking down on those who don't."

An FBI-style list of Britain's "most wanted" tax fugitives who owe HMRC more than £700m has already received 660,000 hits since HMRC published it on Flickr in July.

The moves are part of a £1bn government crackdown on tax evasion. But campaigners against tax avoidance said that while "common criminals" were being named and shamed by HMRC, holders of multimillion-pound Swiss bank accounts who had been found evading tax had been given guarantees of anonymity and immunity from prosecution.

Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK, who has led campaigns against corporate tax avoidance by multinational companies, said: "I'm delighted that HMRC is tackling the common criminals. But these are the people on the fringes of tax avoidance. When is HMRC going to go after the billions held in Switzerland?

"They know who they are, they know the level of tax fraud, but they are guaranteed anonymity and non-prosecution under the Liechtenstein disclosure facility.

"The truth is that 'nice' people don't get their pictures shown in the press or posted over the internet. There's an implicit snobbery in this exercise: it's class-based and about pursuing the smaller person while ignoring the organised tax avoidance of the banking industry."

But other tax experts said the new risk of being publicly named and shamed was having an impact on high-end tax avoidance.

Phil Berwick, a partner at international law firm Pinsent Masons, said: "We have seen a lot of people come forward under the Liechtenstein facility. The potential for having their photo published in this way if they don't come forward is having a real deterrent effect. It is flushing out people who voluntarily want to be compliant and bringing substantial amounts to the Exchequer at very little cost."

Gary Ashford of RSM Tenon, a global accounting firm, said he expected future name-and-shame lists to include those masking their wealth in offshore accounts. "We are seeing a lot of activity by HMRC around offshore accounts, although in terms of pictures, you're not seeing it yet. We could well be seeing more people prosecuted and pictured in this way," he said.

David Cameron said last week that a crackdown on international tax evasion would be one of the top priorities of the UK's leadership of the G8 group of richest nations this year. On Friday the prime minister said foreign companies such as Starbucks and Amazon that had avoided large corporation tax bills lacked "moral scruples" and vowed to make "damn sure" they paid their fair share.

But critics argue that depleted resources at HMRC will make the evasion crackdown impossible.

Murphy said: "There are simply not enough people left to tackle the problem and there's a lack of political will to take on evasion through the banking system. Osborne's only strategy for the UK is to be open to business – open for the business of tax avoidance."

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