Plans for new criminal offence of giving reckless untrue statements or declarations to HMRC by taxpayers, and publication of personal liability notices (PLN) breaches, signal major shift in tax compliance landscape, warns Adam Craggs, head of the tax and investigations team at RPC
The compliance landscape is shifting with the plan for a new recklessness offence for HMRC to use, increasing criminal risk and potential reputational damage for taxpayers and businesses.
The government’s latest tax plans are framed around ‘simplification, modernisation and fairness’. For taxpayers, advisers and in-house teams, the more telling story is how the package recalibrates HMRC’s enforcement toolkit. Across direct tax, VAT and customs, the proposals point to faster intervention, more deterrence by publication of breaches by individuals and organisations, and a system increasingly built around digital channels and large-scale data access by HMRC.
A potentially significant proposal relates to the introduction of a new criminal offence for making ‘reckless untrue statements or declarations’ to HMRC related to direct tax, designed to align direct tax with existing offences in indirect tax.
I
