According to newly published information from HMRC, almost £22m worth of penalties have been dished out to UK companies for deliberately lying about their tax affairs. The Global Payroll Association (GPA) has analysed the HMRC data surrounding deliberate tax defrauders to understand how much UK businesses are being fined and which specific sectors are being most heavily penalised.
The sector that accounts for the largest share of this £22m is the digital services and content industry within which companies have been fined £4.3m for deliberately defaulting on tax returns.
The property sector, including property development, has been fined £2.5m, followed by supply chain and wholesale trade (£2.3m), construction services including trades and engineering (£2.1m), and the agricultural industry with fishing and farming (£2m).
The other sectors to have been fined more than £1m are logistics, courier and transportation services (£1.9m), waste management and recycling services (£1.4m), income – trusts (£1.35m), and the hospitality and food Industry (£1.3m).
