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<p>The information requested can be found in the 2016 National Audit Office Report
on “HMRC’s approach to collecting tax from high net worth individuals” at Part 3,
paragraph 3.10 – 3.12:</p><p> </p><p>“3.10 Where an enquiry identifies suspected fraud
by a high net worth taxpayer the case must be referred to HMRC’s Fraud Investigation
Service. Each case will be considered for criminal investigation. Where HMRC believes
there is insufficient evidence to prove a criminal offence has been committed, it
can carry out a civil investigation to recover the unpaid tax and interest, and charge
penalties. Figure 14 shows the results of cases referred to the Fraud Investigation
Service by the high net worth unit since 2011-12 that have resulted in a civil enquiry
and settlement.</p><p> </p><p>3.11 HMRC gathers evidence against people but does not
prosecute them itself.3 It is the prosecuting authorities who decide whether to prosecute
a case, based on the strength of evidence and whether a prosecution is in the public
interest. Since 2009, two cases involving high net worth individuals have been passed
to the Crown Prosecution Service. One case was taken up by the Crown Prosecution Service
and successfully prosecuted. This was for inheritance tax evasion and was connected
to the data about account holders that was leaked from HSBC’s Swiss bank. These data
showed that the taxpayer had made false statements about the extent of their overseas
assets. The second case was not taken up due to insufficient evidence. At October
2016 HMRC was criminally investigating a further 10 high net worth individuals.</p><p>
</p><p>3.12 HMRC received funding as part of the 2015 Summer Budget to triple the
number of criminal investigations that it can undertake into serious and complex tax
crime, focusing particularly on wealthy individuals and corporates. Its aim is to
increase the number of its cases accepted by prosecuting authorities in this area
to 100 a year by the end of the Parliament. There is no specific target for an increase
in the number of criminal investigations into high net worth individuals as part of
this commitment”.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>As of 3rd April 2017, HMRC have brought together
their High Net Worth Unit and Affluent teams to form a single Wealthy team. This organisational
change is promoting tax compliance and tackling non-compliance across the whole of
the wealthy customer group. These changes will ensure we deploy our specialist, highly
skilled resource on those wealthy individuals that present the highest compliance
risk.</p><p> </p>
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