Anger as prosecutions of tax evasion enablers fall by 75%

Prosecutions of the enablers of tax evasion have plummeted by at least 75% in the past five years, with fewer than five criminal cases in 2023-2024.

- Edwards Siddons & Jon Ungoed-Thomas

The targeting of enablers - anyone who knowingly helps a client evade tax is a central part of HM Revenue and Customs's (HMRC) strategy to claw back cash owed to the Treasury.

Labour hopes to boost the public coffers by billions of pounds with its crackdown on tax avoidance and evasion.

But figures obtained by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reveal that fewer than five such prosecutions were brought in 2023-2024, down from 16 in 2018-2019.

The Treasury had previously said that the figure for 2018-2019 was 29 in response to a parliamentary question raised in March 2023, but tax officials now admit that this figure was incorrect.

In its response to a freedom of information request, the tax authorities declined to provide the exact figures for alleged enablers of tax evasion who were prosecuted and convicted in 2023-2024 because of the "risk of identifying the individual involved".

"This makes a mockery of [freedom of information] laws," said Labour peer Prem Sikka. "Parliament can't properly question HMRC because it hides behind a veil of confidentiality [while] ministers just shrug their shoulders and carry on."