Tag: VAT

Expeditors director banned for 12 years

Posted on February 16, 2018 by - News

Banned-dealer-300A director of an Oxford wholesale mobile phone company has been banned from acting as a director because of his involvement in a  VAT fraud scheme.

William Robert Howard, 45, director of the now liquidated Expeditors Limited, will be prevented from acting as a director for 12 years.

The outfit started in 2004 and a petition was made to wind up Expeditors Limited in June 2017 with an unpaid VAT bill of £22,545.

An investigation by the Insolvency Service then focused on the firm’s participation in a form of VAT fraud known as Missing Trader Intra Community fraud (MTIC).

Known as ‘carousel’ fraud, MITC fraud involves  high-value electrical or small items invoiced rapidly and repeatedly around trading chains. On paper the goods look like they are being moved repeatedly from customer to customer but the goods are only moved as they enter or exit the UK.

Howard used the scheme to offset VAT and reclaim close to £350,000 in its 2005 to 2006 VAT return, the Insolvency Service stated.

Howard’s disqualification started on 5 February 2018 and means that he cannot promote, manage, or be a director of a limited company until 2030.

 

New VAT rules to cripple UK digital sales

Posted on December 12, 2014 by - News

hmrcRegulations to be introduced on the 1st of January 2015 mean that small UK businesses supplying digital services to EU countries will face an administrative nightmare.

If a UK company supplies digital services of any kind to the EU, it will be forced to either register for VAT in each EU country it trades with or use HMRC’s VAT mini one stop shop.

Digital services include broadcasting, telecomms, or services including video on demand, applications, eb00ks, gaming, AV software and online auctions.

HMRC administers payments to every one of the EU’s tax authorities.

VAT rates in Europe vary widely and HMRC also warns that the list of digital services it provides is far from exhaustive.

One company creating web pages for EU customers described the changes as ludicrous.  He told TechEye that rather than signing up to either the HMRC service or registering for VAT in the countries he trades with, he has told his European customers he simply isn’t going to supply them anymore.

CPU scammer jailed for 10 more years

Posted on March 4, 2013 by - News

JasbinderA criminal who was running a multi million pound scam on the back of mobile phone and CPU sales has received a further 10 years in prison for failing to pay a £14 million confiscation order, HMRC has said.

In a statement, HMRC reported Jasbinder Bedesha was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison in 2008 for his role in a missing trader VAT fraud. Mobile phones and CPUs would be imported mostly from Dubai, via Europe, into the UK, and then be sold on through other companies – but with VAT added. Once they were sold on several times they would be exported back to Europe, so the conspiracy could then claim back VAT credit on the purchase of goods. This, of course, was never paid to begin with.

Cash from the scam was laundered through companies in Dubai and Spain before dividing the profits.

Assistant director of criminal investigation for HMRC, Dave Cowie, said in a statement the further ten years shows revenue and customs’ muscle, that it will “pursue every avenue to return the proceeds of crime to the nation or defendants will face severe consequences”.

He said HMRC will continue its investigations to find the missing cash.

This was a planned and “ruthless” attack, Cowie said, to steal “vast amounts of public money”.

“They enjoyed extravagant lifestyles, exclusive homes, performance cars and designer jewellery,” Cowie said, “ultimately at the expense of law abiding tax payers”.