HMRC have published pictures of the UK’s “Top Tax Criminals” of 2012 on social media sharing site Flickr.
HM Revenue and Customs are in high hopes that showcasing the UK’s ‘biggest tax fraudsters’ will help to get the message across to taxpayers of the importance of declaring all income to HMRC.
The picture gallery includes photos of 25 of the UK’s biggest tax dodgers convicted in the criminal courts in 2012.
HMRC Top Tax Criminals
They are among 32 people sentenced to a collective 155 years in jail for tax offences last year.
Treasury minister David Gauke predicted more convictions in 2013.
“We hope that publishing these pictures will help get across that it always makes sense to declare off your income, and tax dodgers are simply storing up trouble for the future,” he said.
You can view the pictures of the twenty tax fraudsters at HMRC’s Flickr Account.
HMRC now has the power to name and shame individuals who have tried to avoid at least £25,000 of tax, even if they have not been pursued in the criminal courts.
However, that power, first announced in 2009 and given to HMRC from April 2010, has not yet been used.
Last year, the tax authorities published photos of 20 tax fugitives who were thought to be responsible for £765m of tax evasion and tax fraud.
HMRC said the 32 people it had chosen to identify are only a small proportion of the 413 people convicted for tax dodging offences in 2011-12.
Tax Fraud and Tax Evasion accusations are serious.
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