The United Kingdom’s tax and customs authority recently launched the Strengthened Reward Scheme, completely reforming its whistleblower protection and reward program.
Modeled on the highly effective US Internal Revenue Service’s whistleblower system, His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC)’s new program is designed to target serious tax avoidance, evasion, and noncompliance. Such offences, says the HMRC, usually involve large companies, wealthy individuals, and offshore or avoidance schemes.
The HMRC will offer rewards to whistleblowers whose information leads to the recovery of greater than 1.5 million in evaded taxes. Informants can earn between 15% and 30% of money recovered.
“The HMRC’s award program is a first step in policing tax frauds and making sure everyone pays their fair share,” said Stephen Kohn, senior partner at whistleblower law firm Kohn, Kohn and Colapinto and Chairman of the Board of the National Whistleblower Center. “If used aggressively and properly this program could revolutionize tax compliance in the United Kingdom,” he said.
The improved scheme will provide UK enforcement with the tools to remedy the harms brought by domestic tax fraud. The UK tax gap—the difference between how much revenue is owed and how much was actually generated through taxation—has been of increasing concern to the British national consciousness. According to HMRC reporting, corruption and noncompliance resulted in 5.5 billion stolen from the public coffers over the course...
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