9:11 am, July 10, 2024
Car dealers who have been deliberately defaulting on their tax bills have been publicly named and shamed by HMRC.
The tax office publishes the updated list every six months and the latest edition, revealed yesterday (Jul 9), includes a trio of automotive retailers.
In order to be outed by the government department, a person or business must have deliberately defaulted on more than £25,000 in tax
The motor traders on the current list dodged more than £370,000 between them and were fined a combined £300,000 for their actions.
HMRC says that everyone on the list has either ‘deliberate errors in their tax returns’ or has ‘deliberately failed to comply with their tax obligations’.
From the automotive world, the south coast-based used car dealer, Ecarlogical Limited, was found to have defaulted on £201,937.47 in tax between April 6, 2020 and April 5, 2022.
The outfit was handed a penalty of £196,889.02 and is currently subject to an active proposal to strike off, according to Companies House.
Meanwhile, Oldham-based car dealer Yasar Hussain was slapped with a £66,857.89 penalty for defaulting on a tax bill of £116,274.63 between April 6, 2015 and April 5, 2020.
Elsewhere, the Birmingham-based Anderton Motor Group Ltd also appeared on the list in relation to offences which took place between March 1, 2020 and September 1, 2022. The firm defaulted on £54,378 of tax and was subsequently fined £38,064.60.
Away from the motor trade, one familiar name on the list was former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, who has more than his fair share of legal issues over recent years.
The 93-year-old was found to have deliberately dodged £1.35m in the year beginning April 6, 2015 and was handed a penalty of the same amount.
On its website, HMRC says of the list: ‘These deliberate acts have resulted in HMRC establishing an additional amount of tax of more than £25,000.
‘HMRC will only publish the details where the taxpayer has not made a full and immediate disclosure when HMRC started to investigate or prior to any investigation.
‘The list relates to deliberate defaulters who’ve been dealt with using civil proceedings.
‘The list does not contain details of criminal convictions of those found guilty of a criminal offence in open court and therefore the verdict and sentence is a matter of public record.
‘In many cases where tax criminals have been successfully prosecuted, HMRC releases details of the case and those convicted in a press release.’
The full list can be viewed here.
