The specialist teams will target specific trading sectors identified as being of high risk of tax evasion in specific parts of the country. These include:
· indoor and outdoor markets in London
· taxi Firms in Yorkshire and Nottingham
· property rentals in East Anglia, London, Yorkshire and the North East
· restaurants in the Midlands.
Paul Roberts, Head of Tax Investigations at Grant Thornton said: “HMRC has been gathering intelligence on tax evasion for the last year or so using ‘web crawler’ technology and is likely to have already identified several traders they plan to investigate.
“These trading sectors will cover a lot of businesses and the locations announced will take in the well-known property rental centres of London, Cambridge, Leeds and Newcastle, the renowned Birmingham Balti Belt restaurant trade, and the world famous London street markets of Camden Market, Portobello Road and Brick Lane.
“Traders who have not registered with HMRC, or who have concerns that they may have understated the profits they have declared, should seek professional advice and consider making a disclosure to HMRC as soon as possible to reduce the chance of a potential prosecution and to mitigate the penalty which may be due.”
