In cases of suspected serious tax fraud or tax evasion HMRC will use the Civil Investigation of Fraud Procedures which are outlined in Code of Practice 8. This can be an intrusive and difficult experience for the individual who is subject to the tax enquiry and his adviser if they are not familiar with the Civil Investigation of Fraud Procedures.

Gilbert Tax are experts in assisting individuals and businesses who have fallen foul of a tax investigation and who need help resolving this with HMRC.

We

• Do not judge the individual
• Defend your position within the scope and parameters of the law.
• Take control of the investigation.
• Work with the aim of achieving the most effective and efficient closure of the tax investigation.
• Encourage you to concentrate on your business and let us deal with HMRC.
• Pride ourselves on caring about our clients and ensure that they are treated justly within the scope of the law.

Civil Investigation of Fraud Procedures

The Civil Investigation of Fraud procedures are considered where the tax, interest and penalties is expected to be a minimum of £75,000.

Inland Revenue investigations which fall within the scope of the Civil Investigation of Fraud procedures are instigated from many sources including:

• · Referral of enquiries from officers of HMRC as their enquiries have uncovered serious tax evasion.
• Disclosures of tax evasion by an individual.
• Details of tax evasion provided by a third party such as dissatisfied customers and competitors or ex spouses and business partners.
• Obtaining information from other UK agencies including HM Customs and Excise, Local Authorities and Planning Offices.
• Exchanges of information with overseas jurisdictions.
• Details obtained from banks and financial institutions especially regarding off-shore bank accounts and trusts.

Although the Civil Investigation of Fraud procedures were once unfrt the sole charge of Special Civil Investigations unit this has recently changed. HMRC have set up six specialist tax investigation units to provide full UK coverage.

The new units deal solely with instances of suspected serious tax fraud or evasion where the tax, interest and penalty is a minimum of £75,000. Larger cases of tax evasion (over £500,000) will still generally be referred to Special Civil Investigations who can also issue Code of Practice 9.

There have been numerous alterations to the Civil Investigation of Fraud procedures over the last few years. The most recent version of the Civil Investigation of Fraud procedures (detailed in Code of Practice 9) has a guarantee that provided a person suspected of serious tax fraud makes a full disclosure of the fraud, once the Code of Practice 9 has been issued, then they will not be prosecuted. Although this was common practice before this has now been formally written into the procedures.

Gilbert Tax has detailed experience and knowledge relating to the Civil Investigation of Fraud procedures and helped many businesses throughout the trauma of the Civil Investigation of Fraud procedures.

The involvement of the Civil Investigation of Fraud team is a serious matter and Gilbert Tax's expertise can help to resolve the tax investigation as quickly as possible.

Our experience of the Civil Investigation of Fraud Procedures can help to reduce the tax, penalties and interest a business or individual needs to pay.

Sometimes individuals may be subject to an enquiry by the Civil Investigation of Fraud unit where they have not committed a tax fraud and may wish challenge the assumption that they have committed tax fraud. Gilbert Tax can also assist with this and has had numerous successes in defending the innocent.

For further details of how we can help deal with a Civil Investigation of Tax investigation please contact us using the details below or click here