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The British taxman’s whistle-blowing hotline that lets the general public report suspected tax dodgers has become a beacon for revenge pranksters. A Freedom of Information request from The Sunday Telegraph to HM Revenue & Customs reveals “many” of the 266 phone calls logged per day are from spurious parties. Exactly how many of the 40,000 calls to the ‘Tax Evasion Hotline’ - set up in March - were malicious ones from aggrieved managers or spouses is not known. The department remained tight-lipped over the number of investigations generated by the public, making it difficult to quantify the success of the scheme and its £1.7million PR campaign. At the time of its TV launch in April, the campaign, featuring a rogue labourer bragging he pays no tax simply because he can, was packaged as a way for taxpayers to hit back at those who make it “unfair for the rest of us.” The objective, then, was not to combat tax avoiders but tax evaders, yet HMRC has no idea about the size of the informal economy, in light of some reports it deprives the Treasury of £75billion each year. “It would be impractical to arrive at a precise and meaningful figure as to the scale of the problem without a considerable investment of time and resources,” a spokesperson has told CUK. The intention of the campaign was to ensure ‘as many people as possible clearly understand their tax obligations and the help available to them.’ However, responding to the Sunday Telegraph’s claims that the hotline has attracted callers with ulterior motives, Chas Roy-Chowdhury of the ACCA, said: “There is a very real concern that people are simply abusing the line to get their own back on neighbours, ex-partners or colleagues.” Sep 12, 2006 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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