THE CEO of Top 60 firm Montpelier has been charged over an alleged £1m tax relief fraud, along with a former colleague.
CEO Watkin Gittins, and former Montpelier Tax Consultants director Martin Calcutt, are alleged to have abused tax relief that allows individuals making gifts to charity to offset the market value of the gifts against their tax liabilities. It is also alleged that Gittins designed the scheme while he and Calcutt implemented it.
Documents were forged to induce HMRC to grant their claim for tax relief, it is also alleged.
They both face a charge of cheating the public revenue, while Calcutt also faces a charge of forgery. Both have been summoned to appear before City of London Magistrates’ Court tomorrow.
Montpelier, which posted revenues of £10.5m for the year ending 31/12/12 in the Accountancy Age Top 50 +50 survey of firms, has still to file its 2011 accounts.