Taxman names and shames small firms... while the corporate giants are STILL going unpunished



HM Revenue and Customs' list name both individuals and companies

List contains tax dodgers who have defaulted on more than £25,000



It 'names and shames' a Liverpool hairdresser, a Cheshire wine trader and a Southport club and bar

Public furious that HMRC appears 'too scared' to embarrass big business



Revenue chiefs are naming and shaming tax dodging small firms while multinationals avoid paying billions.

Nine ordinary business people, including a hairdresser and a coach operator, were listed by HMRC as part of a scheme to highlight deliberate defaulters.

The idea is that the stigma of appearing on the list, to be updated every three months, will persuade those thinking of avoiding tax to pay up.

Name and shame: The list, published on the HM Revenue and Customs website today, name individuals and companies who, after investigation by the HMRC, have been discovered to fail to fully enclose what they owe



List of shame: Nine ordinary business people, including a hairdresser and a coach operator, were named by HMRC today and more will get the same treatment

But MPs and tax experts last night criticised the plan for targeting ordinary individuals while doing nothing to uncover tax avoidance among big companies such as Starbucks, Amazon and Google.



Twitter has also been awash with angry members of the public accusing HMRC of being too frightened to target the 'big boys'.

Another tweeter said that big business is just allowed to send vast sums offfshore while the tax man embarrass 'small fry' firms.

Richard Murphy, of Tax Research, said the list was ‘plain, straightforward hypocrisy’ which was simply ‘identifying plumbers and hairdressers when it should be naming global corporations’.

‘The people named are easy targets. There are clearly different categories of tax crime, with small businesses who put cash in HMRC’s pockets named and shamed; but banks, wealthy lawyers and global corporations offered anonymity.

'It seems that only little people pay tax and only little people are named and shamed.’



And Margaret Hodge, chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, said: ‘They have named and shamed a whole lot of small and medium sized businesses.



'That is welcome because everyone should pay their tax. But I hope that they are not letting bigger fish off of the hook.’



Easy targets: Richard Murphy, of Tax Research, said the list was 'straightforward hypocrisy' which was simply 'identifying plumbers and hairdressers when it should be naming global corporations'

The tax owed by the nine on the list amounted to less than £1million – far less than the £5billion understood to be lost every year because of aggressive tax avoidance by big corporations.



Starbucks, Amazon and Google have all come under fire in recent months for complicated tax avoidance schemes.



Coffee chain Starbucks had sales of £400million in the UK last year – but paid no corporation tax.



Web firm Amazon, which had sales of £3.4billion in 2011, only paid £1.8million while Google paid just £6million out of UK turnover of £395million.



Speaking in Bombay on Monday, Mr Cameron likened ‘aggressive’ forms of tax avoidance by multinational companies to illegal tax evasion.



‘I think there is a legitimate debate to say very aggressive forms of avoidance are not appropriate,’ he said.



‘And particularly, in a country which has set a very low tax rate, it is fair to ask people to pay it.’

Earlier this week Mrs Hodge’s committee called on HMRC to publicly list promoters of tax avoidance schemes and those who used them.

The list published yesterday by HMRC includes people who have been found guilty of evading more than £25,000 of tax.



They were found during investigations by the taxman after April 2010. Large firms on the other hand do not evade tax; they seek ever more complicated legal ways of avoiding paying it.

The taxman has cracked down on smaller firms including a plumber. Other targets included a hairdress and coach operator (picture posed by model)

Treasury minister David Gauke said: ‘The publication of these names sends a clear signal that cheating on tax is wrong and reassures people who pay their taxes – the vast majority – that there are consequences for those who refuse to tell HMRC about their full liability.’

When asked why no large corporations were on the list, Mr Gauke said HMRC was taking action to close legal loopholes, and those who prompted aggressive tax avoidance schemes were also being exposed.

The first list features nine names, including a hairdresser, the owner of a coach firm, a wine retailer and a knitwear manufacturer.



They received fines ranging from a few thousand pounds to £291,830 for wine company The Trade Beverage Company of Mobberley in Cheshire.



David Gauke said the publication of the names showed a clear signal that cheating on tax is wrong, but Margaret Hodge said she hoped the big fish were not being let off the hook



Under the new plan, called the Managing Deliberate Defaulters scheme, anyone who evades tax will also have their financial affairs watched closely for up to five years to make sure they do not re-offend.

The crackdown was aimed at deterring would-be tax evaders. It started with letters being sent to 900 known tax dodgers warning them they will stay in the Revenue’s sights for up to the next five years.

Ordinarily, tax offenders can be fined up to 100 per cent of the tax they have not paid, plus the payment of the back taxes plus interest.



Offenders who have been trying to evade tax in some offshore jurisdictions now face fines of up to 200 per cent of their unpaid tax.



HMRC has the option of prosecuting the worst offenders, which can lead to them being sent to jail if convicted.



In order for someone to be named on the website, they must have failed to fully disclose what they owed at the outset.



The taxman can only publish defaulters’ names for a year and within 12 months of the penalty becoming final. Details are published only once all appeal routes have been exhausted.

