How important is the maximum prison sentence in deterring tax fraud?
Friday 10 November 2023
On Monday 13 November the House of Lords Finance Bill Sub-Committee will be taking evidence from two panels of witnesses as part of its inquiry on the draft Finance Bill 2023-24.
At 4.15pm the sub-committee will hear evidence from:
- Lydia Challen, Co-Chair of the Tax Law Committee, Law Society of England and Wales
- Isobel d’Inverno, Tax Law Sub-Committee Convenor, Law Society of Scotland
- Adam Craggs, Partner at Reynolds Porter Chamberlain LLP (RPC).
At 5:15pm the sub-committee will hear evidence from:
- Mark Davis, Managing Director at ela8 Ltd
- Justin Arnesen, Partner, R&D Tax and Government Grants, Business Tax at Evelyn Partners
- Benjamin Craig, Associate Director, R&D Tax Incentives at Ayming UK.
The meeting will be held in Committee Room 4 of the House of Lords. It will also be streamed live on Parliament TV.
Topics likely to be covered in these sessions include:
- Current civil measures against promoters of tax avoidance schemes
- Effectiveness of the draft legislation against offshore promoters
- Prosecutions for tax fraud
- R&D relief.
About this inquiry
The sub-committee’s inquiry is focussing on four areas within the draft Finance Bill 2023-24:
- The measures dealing with the promoters of tax avoidance and increasing the maximum prison term for tax fraud, are two separate measures which aim to crack down on tax fraud by dealing with the most persistent and determined promoters of tax avoidance and discouraging egregious tax practices.
- The reforms which merge the two existing Research and Development (R&D) schemes as well as providing tax relief for R&D intensive SMEs, propose a single R&D relief and a higher rate of payable tax credit for loss-making R&D intensive SMEs. The measure aims to simplify the tax system and provide further support to R&D intensive SMEs.
- The measure which requires certain taxpayers to provide additional data to HMRC aims to improve the quality of data collected by HMRC to provide better outcomes for taxpayers and businesses, as well as improving compliance.
