HMRC Fraud

There has been a large increase recently in the scale of HMRC email scams - in fact one of our own partners received one this week - so we thought it appropriate to warn you about these. 

Essentially these e-mails are sent out from addresses that look plausible and normally inform you that you are due a tax rebate.  In order to receive the rebate however you need to complete a form (again this looks plausible as it has HMRC logos etc... ) which asks for details of your address, telephone contact number, mother's maiden name, date of birth and your credit or debit card details.  In other words, the perpetrators of these scams wish to steal your personal identity!

Rest assured, HMRC never inform customers of a tax rebate via e-mail or invite them to complete an on-line form to receive a rebate of tax. 

For more information on this type of scam, click on this link http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/security/examples.htm

On a related matter, HMRC have announced a second amnesty from their firing squad for non-disclosure of income and gains from offshore sources.  The amnesty applies if a voluntary declaration is made and offers penalties capped to 10% of the related tax (otherwise they could be in the region of 30% to 100%).  To qualify requires notification of the intention to disclose by the end of November, while the cut-off date for disclosure is 31 January next year (paper submissions) or 12 March (online submissions).

A second amnesty is being given as HMRC have been quietly building up their armoury in this regard.  They are now confident their much wider-ranging powers to obtain information from offshore organisations (which they intend to make full and vigorous use of) gives them better odds of discovering undeclared sources.  So, if you know of anyone who may fall into this category, please feel free to bring this issue to their attention in case we may be able to assist them.

For more information contact Lawrence Adair from our Tax Team on ladair@springfords.com