An employment agency, hologram manufacturer and road haulier have been fined over £20m for tax evasion, in a record quarter where £34.4m in penalties have been issued
The latest HMRC deliberate tax defaulters list showed that nearly 200 companies and individual taxpayers have been identified for evading taxes totalling £44,617,823.45. This figure was up substantially on the figures reported in November 2022, when £13.8m was flagged by the tax office.
This has resulted in HMRC issuing penalties totalling £34,481,035.85 to 198 companies and individuals.
Top of the list of evaders is a Wiltshire based manufacturer of holograms, Silvermask, which owed £16.6m in unpaid taxes for the fourth quarter of 2020. The company was only set up in August 2020 by director Ronald Ryan and has never filed accounts so it is difficult to assess how it could have accumulated such a large tax bill. Inevitably it is now facing compulsory strike-off which is at the dispute stage.
