HMRC has confirmed that businesses in the agricultural industry with fishing and farming sector have been fined a total of £2 million for “deliberatly lying” about the tax they owe.
The Global Payroll Association (GPA) analysed newly released HMRC data surrounding deliberate tax defaulters – companies or individuals who have deliberately lied on their tax returns – to understand how much UK businesses are being fined and which specific sectors are being most heavily penalised.
According to information published by HMRC last month, almost £22 million worth of penalties have been handed out to UK companies for deliberately lying about their tax affairs.
The sector that accounts for the largest share of this £22 million is the digital services and content industry, within which companies have been fined £4.3 million for deliberately defaulting on tax returns.
The property industry, including property development, has been fined £2.5 million, followed by supply chain and wholesale trade (£2.3 million), construction services including trades and engineering (£2.1 million) and the agricultural industry with fishing & farming (£2 million).
The other sectors to have been fined more than £1 million are logistics, courier services and transportation services (£1.9 million), waste management and recycling services (£1.4 million), income – trusts (£1.35 million) and the hospitality and food industry (£1.3 million).
Chief executive and founder of the GPA, Melanie Pizzey, said: “A business will deliberately default on their tax return in order to avoid paying as much tax as they owe.
“The motivation for this is often to increase their profit margin, or to reduce outgoings in order to maintain enough money to keep the company afloat and operational.
“The latter is more likely a motivation for startups or SMEs with a small operating budget.
