People who avoid tax could be blocked from getting honours, according to a new report.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is apparently clamping down on rewarding those with ‘poor’ financial behaviour, according to The Times.

The newspaper claimed HMRC had been notifying the Cabinet Office about people who were involved in tax schemes, with a memorandum of understanding stating ‘poor tax behaviour is not consistent with the award of an honour’.

Tax avoiders could be blocked from receiving honours (Picture: PA)

The note seen by the Times reportedly added: ‘Trust would likely be lost if an honour was awarded to someone with negative tax behaviours and those behaviours became linked to the positive recognition that accompanies the award of an honour.’




Several celebrities and sportsmen have been found to use tax avoidance schemes in the past including David Beckham, Gary Lineker, Gary Barlow and Jimmy Carrr.

David Beckham was reportedly denied a knighthood in 2017, with his leaked emails later allegedly revealing he had referred to the honours committee as a ‘bunch of c****’.

The former Manchester United star previously invested in a tax avoidance scheme.

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David Beckham attends a meeting at the Miami City Hall (Picture: Getty Images)

Gary Lineker has also not received an honour since his OBE in 1992 and it was revealed last year he had used a media partnership run by Ingenious to legally pay less tax.

The two former footballers were not identified in the Times report as people who had been denied an honour after they invested in tax avoidance schemes.

Carr apologised for the using the scheme and called it a ‘terrible error of judgement’.

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Gary Lineker looks on at the end of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Semi Final match between Croatia and England (Picture: Getty Images)

Candidates for honours who are found to be using tax avoidance schemes apparently have three years to abandon the practice before they can be given an honour, including knighthoods.

At the moment the HMRC has risk ratings it assigns to people when vetting for awards – low, medium and high.

This traffic light system was revealed by a Freedom of Inform request.

Medium risk involves ‘participating in one or more avoidance schemes’, while the more serious red warning is issued to people involved in ‘offshore evasion’ and other practices that put them on HMRC’s Managing Serious Defaulters Programme.

A government spokeswoman said: ‘Honours are given to reward outstanding service in a given field or area and each nomination is rigorously assessed.

‘As a matter of longstanding policy, in order to protect the integrity of the system, Government departments which may have an interest in a particular nomination – including HMRC – are invited to contribute their views during this process.’

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