According to the latest figures around 3,000 suspected cases of serious tax evasion were referred by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) for specialist investigation for the second year running last year.
This is an eight per cent increase in the number of cases handed over to the Revenue’s dedicated evasion referral team by its local offices. In total 2,972 referrals were made in 2015/16, up from 2,749 in 2014/15.
This data follows on from the government’s own commitment to crack down on tax evasion, which it has outlined in a number of documents it has recently published.
In last year’s Summer Budget the Chancellor specifically outlined how HMRC would seek to recover an additional £7.2 billion in unpaid tax by the start of the next decade through the use of more than £800 million of additional funding.
This increased budget is expected to help triple the number of criminal prosecutions into serious and complex tax crime to 100 a year within the next five years.
