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Tax dodgers set to be exposed

Tax evaders face being 'named and shamed' by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) from next month if they have avoided paying tax totalling more than £25,000.

The new policy was announced in last year's budget and will apply to tax dodging committed on or after 1 April 2010 - meaning the first names and addresses are unlikely to be posted on HMRC's website until later in the year.

People who are investigated and found to have deliberately avoided tax can expect to be identified, although they will be given the opportunity to plead any mitigating circumstances before their identities are revealed.

Taxpayers who have underpaid in the past, but contacted HMRC on their own initiative in order to 'come clean' will also not have their details published.

Stephen Timms MP, financial secretary to the treasury, said the prospect of bad publicity was intended to be an added deterrent to tax fraud, on top of the existing financial penalties.

Internet link: Press release

For more information, contact Baines Jewitt on 01642 632032

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