In total 149 companies have been added to the latest deliberate defaulters list, owing HMRC £45,164,533 in tax and £56.05m in penalties, amounting to more than £101m. Although there are 20 less companies added this quarter, HMRC has issued a record amount of tax and penalties owed.

The last publication showed a record amount of tax owed, and penalties issued but was almost half of the latest figure at £52m.

An accountancy firm known as 13408494 Ltd, formerly Hive 360 Management 006, has been added to HMRC’s list of deliberate tax defaulters, owing almost £1.5m in tax and £943,654 in penalties. On 30 September 2024 the company was served with an order to wind up from the courts.

In 2022, Hive 360’s accounts showed it owed £3.2m to debtors, reducing to £592,886 in 2023, although the firm was only set up in 2021. The period of tax default ran from 1 August 2021 to 30 April 2023.

Although the firm has been ordered to wind up, its website is still available to view, and it is offering its services, with former director David McCormack still listed as the CEO on the website.

However, McCormack stood down as the director on Companies House in February 2024, appointing Svitlana Bilohurova as the director. Bilohurova is not listed on the Hive 360 website.

McCormack himself has been listed as the director of 14 companies, eight of which are dissolved. The majority of the companies are based at the same address in Birmingham. According to McCormack’s LinkedIn account he is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).

Both 13408494 (Hive 360) Ltd and McCormack have been contacted for comment.

The biggest penalty and tax demand is for an employment and recruitment company, Simplify Contracting Services based in Derby and Abingdon. The company has defaulted on paying £35.7m in tax between December 2016 and August 2019, being hit with a £24.8m penalty.

This amount of tax owed is larger than any of the companies listed throughout the whole of 2024.

Simplify Contracting Services has a sole director Sarah Needham, who is the only director listed on Companies House and was appointed in 2020. The company is currently in liquidation with its accounts more than five years overdue. RSM was appointed as liquidators in May 2023.

An investigation into the bank statements of Simplify Contracting Services ‘revealed payments being made to a common destination totalling £3,106,260’, revealed RSM’s statement of affairs filed at Companies House. RSM has also tried to make contact with the recipient of the money.

In connection with this issue, RSM reported: ‘The joint liquidators have been made aware that the recipient has been forcibly shut down by Solicitors Regulation Authority due to alleged dishonesty by the firm’s managing director’.

RSM also found the company owed £35.4m to preferential creditors and £32m to unsecured creditors.

Property developer Hasan Nawaz Sharif, the son of former Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif, owes the second largest amount of tax. Between April 2015 and April 2016 Sharif, who has been declared bankrupt, accrued a tax bill of £9.38m, with HMRC issuing a penalty of £5.25m.

Sharif’s businesses are based at Avenfield House on Park Lane in London and according to The Gazette he was officially declared bankrupt by the High Court on 24 April 2024.

Management consultancy firm Motivated Intelligence Technology also owes a substantial amount of tax. The Nottingham based business racked up a tax bill of £3.5m between July 2022 and May 2023, with HMRC imposing a £4.7m penalty. This company is also being liquidated.

It was previously called B Excell Solutions, and before this Scapehill Ltd.

HMRC is continuing to pursue dog breeders, however just one has been added to the latest list of deliberate tax defaulters. Zoe Louise Carey accrued a tax liability of £27,381, and a penalty of £18,140 for tax year 6 April 2020 to 5 April 2021.

The dog breeder predominantly sells the Pomeranian puppies through her business name, Pommania Pomeranians. The cost of puppies inflated during the pandemic which is the year in question by HMRC.

Judicael Boris Inchaud, a sports agent linked with former Crystal Palace player Wilfried Zaha, (currently on loan from Galatasaray to Charlotte FC in the US). Inchaud incurred a tax liability of £50,190 between 6 April 2012 and 5 April 2015, being stung with a penalty of £28,859 by HMRC as well.

Inchaud was one of the directors of Zaha Promotions together with Wilfried Zaha, but the company is now dissolved.

Another accountancy firm is on the list, however owing a substantially lower amount than Hive 360. Totus Consultancy owes £35,752 to HMRC in tax, as well as a £17,360 penalty. This tax bill was for a two-year period between 2018 and 2020.

Similarly, Dirk Bernard George, an accountant from Leicester owes HMRC £26,781 in tax and a £15,734 penalty, however this was built up between 2017 and 2023.

An industry not seen so much on the list of deliberate defaulters is modelling. Two are on the list in this publication which could mean HMRC is assessing people within this industry.

Tara Hastings, from Harrow, owes almost £50,000 in tax and a £26,000 penalty, while Danielle Blakemore from Bournemouth owes almost £40,000 in tax and a £25,000 penalty.