Two South Lanarkshire takeaways which have been deliberately defaulting on their tax bills have been publicly named and shamed by HMRC.
In order to be outed by the government department, a person or business must have deliberately defaulted on more than £25,000 in tax.
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’.
Indian takeaway Marmaris (formerly trading as Mabow Ltd) in Stuart Street, East Kilbride was found to have defaulted on £159,994 in tax from January 1, 2017 to March 31, 2021 and October 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021 and handed a penalty of £111,996.
Chinese takeaway Kai Xin (Kai Xin Street Ltd) on King Street in Rutherglen, was slapped with a £177,568 penalty for defaulting on a tax bill of £299,701 from February 1, 2018 to January 31, 2022.
HM Revenue and Customs publishes details of people and businesses given financial penalties for failing to comply with tax obligations, or deliberately filing errors in tax returns every three months.
This follows an investigation by HMRC under section 94 of the Finance Act 2009 in which the taxpayer has deliberately defaulted on tax of more than £25,000 and therefore has been issued a penalty.
HMRC will publish enough information to identify the deliberate tax defaulter, penalties imposed for their deliberate defaults and the amount of tax on which those penalties are for.
The list of deliberate defaulters aims to: send a clear signal that tax defaulting is wrong, deter people from doing it, reassure those who pay the right tax that non-compliance is robustly dealt with, and encourage those who otherwise might not come forward to do so.
An HMRC spokesperson said:“We are committed to making sure people pay the tax they owe.
“For the minority who refuse to pay, we have a range of tools available, and we are able to publish the names of those penalised under civil procedures for deliberately defaulting on certain tax obligations.
“This is about influencing behaviour by encouraging defaulters to engage with us.”
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