The latest HMRC deliberate tax defaulters list showed that nearly 200 companies and individual taxpayers have been identified for evading taxes totalling £44,617,823.45. This figure was up substantially on the figures reported in November 2022, when £13.8m was flagged by the tax office.
This has resulted in HMRC issuing penalties totalling £34,481,035.85 to 198 companies and individuals.
Top of the list of evaders is a Wiltshire based manufacturer of holograms, Silvermask, which owed £16.6m in unpaid taxes for the fourth quarter of 2020. The company was only set up in August 2020 by director Ronald Ryan and has never filed accounts so it is difficult to assess how it could have accumulated such a large tax bill. Inevitably it is now facing compulsory strike-off which is at the dispute stage.
A general retailer, Extensive Enterprise Limited, evaded £2.2m in taxes over 18 months from July 2019 to January 2021 and HMRC has caught up with them, landing a penalty for £1.55m. The company is still operating and swerved a compulsory strike-off action in September 2022. It is not clear how it raked up so much tax debt as the company is defined as a micro business, which means maximum turnover would be £632,000.
In line with HMRC’s attempts to clamp down on rogue employment agencies, it has acted swiftly to censure temporary employment agency SMP Support Services Limited, formerly known as M8 Recruitment. The Derby based businesses evaded £2.01m in taxes during tax year 2019-20 and faces a penalty of £1.41m for evasion.
Tobacco importer Darius Trinkunas failed to pay taxes due in November 2020 amounting to £2.73m and has been ordered to pay a penalty of £1.23m.
Online retailer FSport has been hauled up for a £1m tax bill due by April 2021 and faces a £775,000 fine for non-compliance. The company was only set up in September 2020 and has never filed accounts with Companies House. It has faced various threats of compulsory strike-off which have been discontinued or suspended.
A dairy and milk delivery company run by Paul David Atha faces a fine of £294,806 for unpaid taxes totalling £421,251 over a nine-year period dating back to 2010.
Crewe based accountancy firm PR Finance and Development Ltd, trading as Paul Rewrie AIMS Accountant, has been hauled up for evaded taxes of £304,103 for a two-year period from 2017 to 2019. As a result, owner Rewrie has been fined £180,941. Rewrie is a CIMA trained accountant.
The operator of residential care homes, Enriched Care, also evaded taxes of £206,426 during the pandemic from March 2020 to March 2021. Due to the failure to pay, it now faces penalties valued at £170,302. However, the Surrey based provider went into compulsory liquidation in May 2022 and had not filed micro accounts since February 2020. When the company went bust, the liquidators flagged that it had a £50,000 bounce back loan outstanding, which was given to the company despite the fact it was overdue with accounts.
A makeup artist, Amanda Jane Bell, had unpaid taxes of £149,946, accrued over a six-year period from 2013 to 2019, and now faces a penalty of £102,953. Clive Arthur Sharples failed to report £216,853 in income from property and owes a penalty of £100,392 for unpaid tax
