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Countless resources are invested at a substantial cost to detect, investigate and prosecute tax evasion. Whether you are a self-employed contractor under-declaring income, a business submitting disallowed expenditure invoices within your returns or a large corporation relying on a tax avoidance advisor's advice on legitimate schemes; HMRC will, by any means necessary, seek to pursue you for current and former years of revenue losses.

New Tax Evasion offences

To make matters worse, the Criminal Finances Act 2017 introduces disproportionately onerous obligations on businesses which all professionals and people in business need to consider carefully. While tax evasion has been a criminal offence for decades, there was no duty on the company to stop another person engaging in such illegal activity. Unless you personally evaded or avoided tax, you needn’t have worried yourself about the tax-related criminality of another.

The new laws, however, render any business liable to prosecution if a tax offence is committed by an employee or ‘other person’ performing services for the company, for example, agents. Businesses must now introduce safeguards and undertake substantial due diligence before contracting services.

As soon as you discover that you are part of a tax evasion investigation, it’s critical that you seek competent legal advice immediately. By taking early action, it’s possible that tax evasion solicitors will be able to get your case dismissed before it reaches the court stage.

Have you been arrested or charged with Tax Evasion?

If you or somebody close to you has been charged or arrested in connection with a tax evasion case, you’ll likely feel unnerved, worried and disturbed about what the outcome might be.

In some cases, you may even have been accused of playing a role, despite you not having any involvement. In this situation, it’s crucial that you get your name cleared before the case progresses further.

On this page, you’ll find the most commonly asked questions together with their answers. Our aim is to provide you with the support and guidance that you need to get you through this challenging time. If you have a question, and you don’t see it listed here, feel free to call us on 0208 888 5225 or contact us and we will do what we can to provide you with the information that can help you.

What type of actions are considered tax evasion?

Here are some examples of tax evasion that may have led to the situation at hand.

Not declaring all income to the HMRC – for instance, not telling HMRC about all channels of income and the full entirety of income such as all business profits.

Keeping your business ‘off the books’ – for example, dealing in cash and not providing receipts to buyers.

Using an offshore bank account – an example of this might be for hiding money, other assets or shares offshore so that HMRC can not find it.

There are many other examples. If you would like to know more about whether a crime that you’ve been linked to is classified as tax evasion, you can always contact us for further information.

What happens in a Tax Evasion investigation?

A tax evasion investigation is also known as a tax inspection.  The procedure is an investigation into the tax affairs or a person or a company. The purpose is to recover any underpaid tax from previous years of assessment.

If you learn that you’re going to undergo a tax inspection, you may be feeling stressed. Depending on your circumstances, you may be worried about what the outcome might be for you and your dependents. If the situation is serious, there could be a chance that you will have to repay a large amount of money and could be at risk of being imprisoned. If the latter happens, you’ll be concerned whether your dependents will have enough income to cover what they need to live.

Your future may feel uncertain and unsettled.

With every case being unique, it’s important that you speak with a tax evasion solicitor. The HMRC will begin a tax inspection if they receive information about a taxpayer potentially committing fraud. They will then decide whether the case has a good chance of concluding so that they can be paid monies owed.

Gaining access to a solicitor with experience and expertise in tax evasion will give you peace of mind. You’ll have access to legal advice, support and guidance on how to best handle the investigation process.

You may have been falsely accused of tax evasion

In some cases, a person may be accused of tax evasion when the situation is not how it may appear. Perhaps not all the correct information has been provided to HMRC, or something looks unusual on your tax return. In a case of this nature, working with a competent tax evasion solicitor may result in getting your case dismissed.

Some taxpayers who do pay their tax fairly can also be caught up in the HMRC crackdown. Random inspections make up a proportion of investigations, and there is nothing a person or a business can do to stop this.

Without a lawyer, you cannot find out more until the interview

If there is a reason to be suspicious of your tax affairs, you may need a legal expert in tax fraud to work with the HMRC to agree on how much tax is due. There may also be a penalty to pay. If you do not owe any money to the HMRC, the tax evasion solicitor will prove that.

Without engaging an experienced tax lawyer during an investigation, you may have to pay far more tax penalties to the HMRC than need be. The assessment may be more significant and longer lasting too. By taking a lawyer, you may also be able to avoid receiving unreasonable demands.

Informers can make anonymous reports to HMRC about tax evaders

The HMRC has a hotline for informers to make reports about either an individual, a business or a corporation. Besides, informers can use the HMRC website to lodge a report anonymously.

Can the police search my home?

The police will request the courts for a search warrant so that they can legally search your home and possibly your workplace for evidence. They will search for evidence on phone bill statements, money transfers and look for valuable and unexplained assets. They may put you and your family and connections under surveillance.

Could you go to prison for Tax Evasion?

Tax evasion is considered a serious offence in the UK. If you’re convicted, you may be given a serious punishment. This may be a maximum of 7 years’ imprisonment, a fine, financial penalties and a repayment of what is owed.

Of course, this is a very worrying time for both you and your family. It’s vitally important that you take the right steps to protect the wellbeing of you all.

It’s imperative that you engage a fraud solicitor or fraud lawyer who handles tax evasion cases regularly.

Read more about sentencing for Tax Evasion.

What mitigating factors may be considered in sentencing?

The tax office will look at whether you have made an innocent mistake such as not keeping records in good order, or if what you have done has been done on purpose. They will use this information to decide how serious your situation is.

Does a conviction for Tax Evasion go on your criminal record?

If your tax evasion case progresses to court and you are found guilty and convicted, your conviction will be listed on your CRB / police record. The period of endorsement will depend on the nature and length of your sentence.

How Can Stuart Miller Solicitors Help?

Regardless of the nature of the investigation or prosecution, with Stuart Miller Solicitors, you can be sure you will be defended rigorously by specialist tax evasion solicitors. You will not be working with general criminal lawyers. You will be working with an expert tax evasion barrister, a knowledgeable tax evasion solicitor and a fraud caseworker, bringing many minds to find the best solutions to defend you and achieve the best possible outcome.

Our experienced fraud solicitors can assist with any allegations of financial irregularity and reduce the impact on your life as much as possible. With informed and careful strategic planning, our tax evasion solicitors will ensure you receive the best advice from the beginning and where possible, avoid the investigation leading to court proceedings. If matters can be settled with HMRC, every effort will be made to achieve this but if there is dispute concerning the sums being demanded or alleged to be evaded, we will instruct leading financial analysts to review the records and calculations. The financial experts will not only scrutinise HMRC’s calculations but also opine on the accepted norms of your area of practice, which will assist your defence.

The importance of record keeping

For you to maintain the optimum chances of success, your historic record-keeping will prove paramount to your case. Owing to our experience in this field, our Lawyers will guide you on exactly what you need to retrieve and which witnesses you may wish to rely upon. We will collect the necessary evidence for you and ensure it is preserved in a form that you can later rely on. We don’t have the habit to wait around in gathering evidence.  We will pro-actively gather defence evidence to assist your case and ensure you are fully prepared to give evidence yourself when you stand in the dock.

Our tax evasion solicitors will scrutinise and challenge any restraint orders that may have been imposed on you, your loved ones and your businesses. If you have restrictive bail conditions, we can also review and challenge these to allow your day to day life to continue, through what will no doubt become a very stressful period.

How can you discuss your case with a Tax Evasion Solicitor?

If you have been accused of being involved in any type of tax fraud, instructing specialist tax evasion solicitors is vital. It’s important to access good advice so that you don’t make the situation worse than it needs to be.

We will offer you a free consultation for you to discuss your case with us whether over the telephone, in person or online. If you are viewing this page on a mobile phone device, you can WhatsApp us using the icon in the bottom banner.

Whether yours is an allegation of fraud by false representation, fraud by failing to disclose information, making or supplying articles for use in fraud, fraudulent evasion, false accounting, cheating the public revenue or even money laundering; we will provide you with step-by-step guidance and support whilst building your defence.

What will happen when I instruct a tax evasion lawyer?

We offer a dedicated solicitor, barrister and caseworker to each conspiracy to defraud case, which will ensure an outstanding level of customer service throughout. You can be sure that someone will always be available to assist you, and there is more than one legal mind being applied to the issues in your case.

Also, we use only the best mobile phone experts and only the most competent financial experts to study, analyse and evaluate the evidence to provide useful defence evidence or discredit the prosecution’s evidence.

The taking of action very early on in any case, is what increases the chances of success. Some prosecutions are intimidating, complex and need skilful advice at every crossroads.

We will offer you a free consultation for you to discuss your case with us. We can act for you at the police station for free and after that, we can help assess your financial eligibility for legal aid. We believe, no matter what your financial position, if you are prosecuted by the State, you must also be defended with funds by the state.

Would you like to discuss your case before instructing us?

If you’d like to have a no obligation chat with us before you instruct us to take your case, then contact us today.

Please contact our tax evasion solicitors to arrange your meeting, whether face to face, online or by telephone. If you prefer, you can also send us a WhatsApp message using the link on this page.

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