Avoidance scheme promoters face criminal action

Views are sought in a new consultation on proposals for a new criminal offence to apply to promoters who continue to offer tax avoidance schemes specified in a stop notice issued by HMRC .

Another measure will expedite the disqualification of directors of companies who engage in promoting tax avoidance including those who control or exercise influence over such a company.

The principal focus of the new offence is to tackle the continued promotion of those avoidance schemes covered by a stop notice. This would mean for example where a promoter enrolled a new user into the scheme after the issue of the stop notice they would be committing a criminal offence.

The government proposes to achieve this by introducing a new ‘strict liability’ criminal offence - where a failure to comply with the stop notice would be a criminal offence regardless of the...