Customs Official To Lead New UK Anti-Tax Avoidance Drive
A senior Customs official is to lead a fresh assault on tax avoidance in the United
Kingdom, the Financial Times has reported.
According to the report, Chris Tailby, director of tax practice at Customs,
has been given the task of introducing compliance strategies used successfully
by the department, across the newly merged Revenue and Customs. Tailby, who was until 2002 a tax partner at accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers,
will lead an 100-strong anti avoidance team at the new tax super-department that
will examine new methods of closing the ‘tax gap’ between what the
government is theoretically owed by the taxpayer, and what it receives. According to the Customs department's annual report, the VAT gap fell to 12.9% in
2003/4 from 15.8% after the department launched a new compliance strategy which
focused on tax avoidance, ‘missing trader’ fraud (where fraudulent
traders sell goods inclusive of VAT then disappear before passing on the tax
to Customs), and unregistered businesses. The new head of the Revenue and Customs Department, David Varney praised Customs’
track record, noting it had produced “impressive results during a time
of significant change within the organisation.” .
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