HMRC naming and shaming deliberate tax defaulters

13 July 2016

HMRC continue to publish their quarterly list of those who have deliberately defaulted on their tax responsibilities.

Subject to certain stringent conditions, anyone who has deliberately defaulted on their tax responsibilities will have their details published by HMRC.

These are people who have received penalties either for:

  • deliberate errors in their tax returns
  • deliberately failing to comply with their tax obligations.

HMRC may publish information about a deliberate tax defaulter where:

  • HMRC have carried out an investigation and the person has been charged one or more penalties for deliberate defaults
  • those penalties involve tax of more than £25,000.

However, their information won’t be published if the person earns the maximum reduction of the penalties by fully disclosing details of the defaults.

The law requires that HMRC do not publish any information about the person for more than 12 months from the date they first publish it, and the lists of deliberate tax defaulters won’t be captured for the National Archives.