On one day, 580 envelopes flooded in, as Chinese companies had used his Cardiff flat address to register themselves with HMRC to pay VAT. The overall debt came to £500,000, Davies told the BBC.
Even worse, the error was not picked up by HMRC’s internal systems.
Yeah, well, why would you expect it to?
He informed police and HMRC, but the bills kept on coming and HMRC did not respond, the Times reported. Action Fraud said it was “unable to identify a line of inquiry”. Most of the firms were online businesses without any presence in the UK.
Finally, he got through to them. Partially, anyway.
HMRC’s permanent secretary, Jim Harra, said 2,356 of the 11,000 businesses registered at the address owed it money. Harra said systems had been put in place to stop Davies being sent more letters or businesses registered to his address.
However, he added investigators “so far have found no evidence of fraud or fraudulent intent”.
They couldn't find their own anuses with both hands and a hunting dog...
The financial crime consultant Graham Barrow said he suspected it was fraudulent activity from the overseas companies. “It looks to all intents and purposes like VAT fraud,” he said. “There’s no other reason why you’d register for VAT at a complete stranger’s address, particularly for 11,000 companies to do that.”
Barrow believes the firms are collecting VAT from their buyers but not paying it to HMRC.
Davies said: “[They] need to tighten up completely. [It’s] easier to register a company for VAT than it is to go and get a bus pass.”
At least buses actually exist...
This doesn't make sense. Why would 11K companies register the VAT address there yet only 2.5k owe our thieving government taxes?
ReplyDeleteI mean, why not. If you're a Chinese company and Amazon and eBay are forcing you to be VAT registered with an address in the UK, why not just register against any random old address in the UK and then just swipe the 20% VAT?
ReplyDeleteIt's not like the Chinese Tax Man is going to come banging on their door, is it?
Just a free, extra 20% courtesy of UK Gov.
If you go on Ebay there are loads of Chinese sellers who claim to be 'VAT registered' and have a UK registered company as their UK location, despite I suspect never having set foot in the UK and having no actual business presence here. I suspect its to get round Ebay restrictions on VAT. The actual goods get shipped from China, judging by the delivery times.
ReplyDeleteFascinating. Some people also register their cars to people and addresses at random. It happened to a chum of mine when a car so registered was in a bad accident.
ReplyDelete"This doesn't make sense."
ReplyDeleteSomething I find myself saying frequently, these days...
"Just a free, extra 20% courtesy of UK Gov."
Out of OUR pockets!
" I suspect its to get round Ebay restrictions on VAT. The actual goods get shipped from China, judging by the delivery times."
Yes, I suspect so, and if they get some 'free' money as well, why not?
"Some people also register their cars to people and addresses at random."
I don't doubt it! I've had two VAT letters delivered to my address recently, from HMRC. Correct address and postcode, totally different (Portugese) name. Sent them both back.