Partner Nick Barnard quoted after HM Revenue & Customs’ decision to charge a tax accountancy firm for failure to prevent tax evasion

Partner Nick Barnard is quoted in Law360 UK, after HM Revenue & Customs’ decision to charge a tax accountancy firm for failure to prevent tax evasion. This is the first time HMRC has taken a company to court over the adequacy of its programs for tax evasion compliance.

According to Nick, tax evasion is difficult and time-consuming to prosecute, involving complex activities and structures. Concealment is almost always built into the alleged offending, he notes.

This is part of the “wider story” of increasing corporate criminal liability over the last 20 years, Nick says, including the reform of corporate manslaughter and the introduction of failure to prevent offenses for bribery, tax evasion and fraud.

Such changes enable companies to be more easily held liable for substantive offending by senior management, Nick says.

Read Nick’s comments in Law 360.