The director of a West Midlands construction company has been disqualified for seven years after he failed to declare all the company’s sales income, resulting in an under-payment of VAT totalling over £200,000
Martin Baker was the sole director of C.J.M Tiling Ltd (CJMT), which was incorporated in 2007 and traded as a construction company in Cradley Heath.
In December 2015 and March 2016, HMRC made unannounced visits to CJMT and identified the construction company had under-declared its VAT liabilities by failing to disclose all its sales.
Furthermore, an additional, undeclared bank account was identified in which sales income was deposited. HMRC raised an assessment for additional VAT liabilities of £205,262 for the period June 2012 to December 2015, as well as applying civil penalties of £90,146.
CJMT later entered liquidation on 26 January 2017 owing £469,673 to creditors, including at least £344,221 for VAT, and following the company’s liquidation, the Insolvency Service carried out its own investigations, leading to Baker’s disqualification.
Jane Knight, deputy head of insolvency investigations for the Insolvency Service, said: ‘Under-declaration of the VAT due by a company deprives the exchequer of the monies needed to provide public services.
‘In co-operation with HMRC, the Insolvency Service will not hesitate to investigate such misconduct with disqualification as a director the likely outcome.’
Report by Pat Sweet
