Companies must strengthen internal controls over their tax affairs and improve their whistleblower systems in light of HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC) new whistleblower awards scheme, an expert has said.
Hinesh Shah, fraud, financial crime and forensic accounting specialist at Pinsent Masons, was commenting on HMRC’s ‘Strengthened Reward Scheme’, which officially came into effect on 26 November 2025. The scheme is intended to incentivise whistleblowers to report significant tax non-compliance and help to reduce the UK’s estimated 59 billion tax gap, according to the most recent statistics published by HMRC.
“HMRC has introduced the strengthened reward scheme as part of its wider efforts to tackle the UK's persistent tax gap. The scheme seeks to strengthen tax compliance by financially incentivising whistleblowers who provide actionable intelligence relating to large-scale tax evasion and avoidance,” Shah said.
Data provided by HMRC to Pinsent Masons shows that last year over 1,200 tax investigations collected enough extra tax to potentially qualify for the reward scheme.
Under the new scheme, whistleblowers who help HMRC recover at least 1.5m in unpaid tax can be rewarded with between 15% and 30% of the tax collected. Tax investigations that yield such large amounts of money usually target large companies, wealthy individuals or avoidance schemes.
Shah said: “Once publicity spreads and it is clear that substantial financial rewards are being given out, then there will be a...
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