Thousands snitch on tax-evading mates

Taxman receives hundreds of thousands of tip-offs since confidential hotline set-up

Written by Nicholas Neveling

Almost 200,000 people have let HM Revenue & Customs know about friends, family and colleagues who they think are evading tax.

According to The Times HMRC has received 155,000 phone calls, 12,083 letters and 17,952 emails since it established its confidential hotline a year ago.

The taxman would not disclose how many of the tip-offs had led to prosecutions or how much money had been recovered. A cost-and-benefit report is to be published by the Treasury within the coming months.

'The details of the call are processed, and if the risk and intelligence team decides that we should proceed with intervention, they will gather information from various places, such as company accounts, employer records, self-assessment forms and tax credit information to support the allegation,' an HMRC spokesman said in a statement.

Further reading:

Advisers move to snatch tax amnesty work

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