HM Revenue & Customs has given a person their first stop aid for tax avoidance and ordered Paul Baxendale-Walker, a beaten lawyer and former lawyer, to promote two by the tax authority as abusive and artificial programs.
In a pioneering step, the HMRC confirmed that these stop notices marked for the first time that the commands were given to a person rather than a company than to a company, and the government’s intention to prevent tax avoidance, regardless of how programs are structured.
The two agreements funded by Mr. Baxendale-Walker include offshore trust and complex structures with which users can access their funds and at the same time avoid taxes. The HMRC has rated them as programs without a real business purpose, which aims exclusively on the exploitation of tax gaps.
Jonathan Smith, HMRC director of counter avoidance, said: “The courts have already come to the conclusion that Mr. Baxendale-Walker has designed and sold several tax avoidance systems that do not work as claimed. These stop-knownities send a clear message: We use every tool to protect the public from tax avoidance.”
The communications were issued as part of the strengthened framework of the government, which is part of a wider strategy to close the tax gap and to promote protection for important public services.
Connections of tax avoidance are formal legal systems that obliged the recipient to stop the promotion of certain systems immediately. Unserving can lead to considerable financial punishments or even criminal prosecution.
Mr. Baxendale-Walker, who was previously legal measures and assertive procedures in connection with tax avoidance, is now excluded from marketing or facilitating these two specific programs.
The systems in question have now been added to the list of HMRC’s tax avoidance agreements.
The HMRC calls on public and professional consultants to report continued promotion of these programs. Anyone who is aware of Mr. Baxendale-Walker who continues to market them is asked to contact the department via their website.
People who believe that they may have used a tax avoidance system-regardless of it
This step is a considerable step in the continuing efforts of the government to combat aggressive tax planning, and signals that individual promoters, not only companies, are now firmly in the sights of HMRC.