Taxman’s success in tackling double glazing rogues
3rd November 2015

HM Revenue and Customs’ head of taskforces Jim Stevenson, writing exclusively for The Glazine, explains how targeting the double glazing industry protects those who play by the rules.

HMRC runs special ‘taskforces’ to identify and prosecute those people who deliberately don’t pay the taxes they owe. These taskforces track down tax dodgers and collect money that hasn’t been declared. By doing this we also protect honest, law-abiding businesses that not only play by the rules but get undercut by people who don’t pay what they owe.

Taskforces bring together various HMRC teams for intensive bursts of activity targeted at specific sectors and locations where there is evidence of a high risk of tax evasion and fraud. One of our current taskforces looks at the double glazing industry UK-wide, after a successful six-month pilot scheme in South West England last year that’s due to collect almost £2 million in unpaid tax - more than double its target.

I want to be clear –if you pay what you owe, when you owe it, you have nothing to worry about. But we know that there are some people who deliberately cheat the system, and HMRC takes strong action against those who don’t pay what they owe.

To date, six people have been prosecuted as a result of the pilot in the South West. They include:

• a double glazing salesman from Exeter jailed for nine months for a £47,500 tax dodge

• a window sales canvasser from Plymouth who dodged £20,000 in tax and national insurance. He got an eight-month suspended sentence

• a window salesman from Somerset given a six-month suspended sentence for a £16,000 tax fraud.

It’s satisfying to hear the court results. A lot of hard work goes into the prosecutions and all our other investigative and enforcement work. The fact that we found nearly £2 million in unpaid tax, double the amount we thought we would find, is a real credit to everyone involved.

And these positive results mean expanding the double glazing taskforce to cover the whole UK was a logical step. Of course, we know that most people working in this sector play by the rules and pay what is owed. But there are always a few rogue traders, as the court cases from the South West prove.

The double glazing pilot was expanded into a nationwide taskforce in March 2015 and investigations are currently underway. We’re confident that it will bear fruit and have set an overall target of around £8 million for the new UK-wide taskforce.

The taskforce approach is one that is really working – by tackling the high-risk areas, we’ve collectively brought in more than £400 million in unpaid tax. Since 2011 HMRC has run 120 taskforces targeting areas as diverse as the fishing industry, construction, restaurants and property.

It’s always better for people who haven’t paid all the tax they owe to come forward and tell HMRC about it before the taskforce teams find you.

Jim concludes by asking all our readers: “If you have income you haven’t told HMRC about you can find out what you need to do here. “