UK Steps Up Fight Vs Tax Evaders, Convictions Rise

Tom Burroughes

25 February 2025

, said.

The maximum penalty for income tax evasion is a fourteen-year prison sentence and/or an unlimited fine. This had doubled from seven years in the Finance Act 2024.

“HMRC are sending a clear message to tax evaders that they won’t be let off lightly – longer sentences send a strong message that HMRC will use the full force of the law,” Porter said.

Several lengthy sentences for tax evasion have been handed out in recent years, including:

-- Two members of a clothing manufacturing company sentenced to a combined total of 31 years, alongside 26 other members sentenced to a total of 147 years and seven months for carrying out a “carousel fraud” scheme, falsely claiming £97 million ($122.7 million) of VAT repayments on false exports;

-- A partner of an accountancy firm in Northern Ireland was handed a four-year sentence for creating, alongside 26 accomplices, a false audit trail for construction clients to avoid tax totalling over £5 million;

-- Two property developers were sentenced to a total of eight years for using offshore companies to hide money from the sale of land, evading £3.2 million in corporation tax; and

-- Former Formula One owner Bernie Ecclestone was sentenced to a 17-month jail term, suspended for two years, after failing to declare offshore assets over of £400 million.