HMRC joins forces with four other countries to tackle international crime

HMRC and their counterparts in Canada, Netherlands, US and Australia have united to launch the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement (J5). J5 is a new alliance dedicated to tackling international tax crime and money laundering.

J5 builds on existing mutual assistance protocols and enhances the current levels of intelligence and expertise these countries already share. They will work together to target those who make a living out of enabling tax crime. J5 brought together heads of tax crime and senior officials from The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, the Australian Tax Office, the Canada Revenue Agency, Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation and HMRC.

Frank Strachan, Head of Tax comments:

‘These countries have been running enhanced intelligence and assistance relationships for some time. The new alliance strengthens and reinforces their collective drive to coordinate against tax crime. I am pleased to see that they are committed to targeting those who continue to make a living from enabling tax crime’.

The agencies will not only share information but conduct investigations together with an expanded focus. Although the group is small, results and benefits will be shared with wider international partners with the aim of increasing global capability in the struggle against offshore tax evasion.

Information derived from the investigations into the enablers of tax crime will inevitably identify their clients who might also be taken up for investigation. People are again reminded of the importance of reviewing their tax affairs and making any corrections by 30 September 2018 because of the significant penalties of potentially 200% or more of the tax underpaid that could apply for failing to correct – (please see our previous blog on The UK’s Requirement to Correct).

For further information please do not hesitate to contact Sean Bannister, Hetal Sanghvi, or a member of the Edwin Coe Tax team.

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