Grocery delivery company tops deliberate defaulters list with £1.14m tax bill

HMRC’s latest list of major tax defaulters owing over £16.5m in unpaid tax, was topped by a grocery delivery company owing £1.14m and a metal and industrial chemical company owing £1.1m, with buy-to-let landlords, online traders and accountants, also featuring.

HMRC has published its latest quarterly listing of deliberate tax defaulters’ details, adding 107 names to the list of those who have received penalties either for deliberate errors in tax returns or for failing to comply with tax obligations.

In total, the tax evaders £16.5m in unpaid tax with penalties amounting to nearly £10m.

The largest tax penalty on the current listing was landed on an industrial chemicals and metals supplier from Leeds, which was given a £773,075 penalty over £1.1m in unpaid tax from July 2014 to September 2015.

SS Traders, a grocery and soft drinks delivery company based in Watford, racked up £1.14m in unpaid tax over a seven-month period from January to July 2015, and was given a penalty of £643,102 for deliberately avoiding tax.

Third on the defaulters list this quarter was a fork lift truck driver from Lithuania, Robertas Cesonis, who was given a penalty of £495,747 over an unpaid tax bill of £826,246 due in September 2017.

Online trader, Wai Kwan Law of Hong Kong, who traded under the name Vadgets, was hauled up over unpaid taxes amounting to £638,447 and was fined £424,567, while security firm, Horizon Security Services, formerly of Stratford, evaded tax over a three-year period from May 2013 to April 2016, leaving an unpaid tax bill of £646,566, and was given a £384,742 fine.

Accountants and consultants HBACS Ltd and HB Accountancy and Consultancy Services Ltd were flagged for two separate instances of deliberate default, totalling over £87,000 in unpaid tax, from October 2010 to September 2015. Penalties of £32,000 were issued for the two offences. Meantime, Mark Alan Leese of Bradford, formerly trading as Inntouch, and also offering accountancy services, was another deliberate defaulter with unpaid tax of £76,556 over a seven-year period from 2010 to 2017, was given a £53,558 penalty.

A dancer from Derby, was flagged for unpaid tax of £68,000 over a six-year period from 2010 and was fined £33,000, while a plasterer from Goole, was pulled up for unpaid tax of £88,000 and was given a £64,000 fine.

HMRC only publishes details where the taxpayer has not made a full and immediate disclosure either before or during an investigation, and the information is made publicly available for a maximum period of 12 months.

HMRC’s deliberate tax defaulters list is available here