A businessman, who ran several property companies whilst also employed under PAYE but failed to declare his income or that he was a company director to HMRC, has been sentenced and fined £200,000 for evading £281,000 in taxes
Property developer and landlord Michael Waddingham is currently the director of two companies and owns 17 properties throughout England. He was also the part owner of several racehorses and is currently the director of a betting syndicate (another registered company).
An HMRC investigation found he had not submitted self assessment tax returns between 2008 and 2012, failing to declare rental income or that he had been a director of seven land and property development companies at the time, and had income above £100,000 per year due to the directorships.
In addition to running nine companies and his multiple directorships, he was also employed between 2007 and 2010 as an employee at an estate agents and paid tax under their PAYE scheme.
Following his arrest in 2015, HMRC forensic accountants worked with his own accountants to calculate the total income tax and capital gains tax that he owed.
At Kingston Crown Court Waddingham admitted tax fraud and was sentenced to two years in jail suspended for two years plus an additional financial penalty of £200,000 (in addition to the £281,000 tax he has already repaid). He also has a 200-hours community work order to be completed in 12 months and a six-month curfew between the hours of 20:00 to 05:00 with electronic tag.
Waddingham has six months to pay the additional £200,000 financial penalty.
