The company’s directors will find out about a dawn raid when they get the early morning knock at the door, and the public will find out about it when news of the raid hits the press, but an HMRC tax fraud raid will have been months in the planning and executed without warning.

Tax fraud investigations are mainly intelligence-led and a substantial amount of evidence is collated long before that knock on the door. Once a target is identified, HMRC liaises with its counterparts in the National Crime Agency (NCA), Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to facilitate information sharing though its legal gateways, where appropriate.